Something Good Can Work
by khaleesimaka
Summary: A collection of my Soul x Maka oneshots. Ratings will vary depending on the story. Rating is in case of future chapters but I will warn if there's anything bad beforehand. Current: Maka helps Soul plan out how he's going to ask the girl he's been dying to date for months.
1. Happenings

A/N: I just wanted place to put my little oneshot Maka and Soul musings because they give me so many emotions.

**Happenings**

It didn't happen all of a sudden, he knew that for sure. It was probably there the whole time, but he just didn't realize it until that moment. She was always by his side and believed in him when he didn't have the strength to do it. She never once judged him, not even when she found out about his family. She saw him as the person he really was, and he was grateful for that. She was different from the other girls in their school because of the fact that she didn't have a preconceived idea of him. She knew exactly who he was from the beginning, and has stuck by his side through it all. He had yet to meet a girl outside of their friends who saw him for him, but there was something different about her in that moment. He wasn't sure if it was the way she smiled at him, or the way her emerald eyes lit up when she looked at him. That couldn't be it because that was always there before. No, this was something else. Something in their relationship had changed, but he wasn't sure exactly what it was.

She wasn't even really the type of girl others would expect him to go for. Everyone would expect him to go for a girl like Blair, but at that moment his attraction to her was obsolete after he started feeling something for his best friend. His best friend. This girl was his best friend and his meister. If one of them had one-sided feelings for the other, it could ruin their relationship forever, or would it? If he truly cared for her, he would stay with her no matter what happened in life, right? And she would do the same for him, even if he confessed that he felt something for her. Neither one of them would let it come between them. Hell, they've known each other for the past five years, working on their partnership all those years, they wouldn't let all that hard work go to waste over something like this.

"Soul? Are you okay?" the girl sitting next to him asked causing him to snap out of his thoughts.

"I'm fine, Maka. Don't worry about me," he flashed a toothy smile to her, and pretended to listen to the professor. This was definitely something he couldn't tell her just yet.


	2. All Good Things Have an End

A/N: I am going to apologize ahead of time for this. This is a Sad Eater so continue at your own risk. Just know it was really hard to write this because of the ending. I am so sorry. Just know I could make it worse with an aftermath story, but I won't because it's too painful. Also I do not own Soul Eater or any of the characters. Update 4/16: I changed the title

**All Good Things Have an End**

The madness had taken over him, and he wasn't able to get out of it like the last time. He was losing control, he could feel it. The wound on his chest was burning, the world around him was becoming darker and darker, and he didn't know how to escape it. This was the worse the black blood had acted up compared to the past situations. He was able to come back from it last time, but he wasn't completely sure he would be able to do that this time. The madness was fighting back harder with each of his feeble attempts to overcome it. Soul could hear screaming in the distance, and he was sure it was his own but it sounded like it was coming from another source other than himself. It sounded like the screams of an animal in pain, and it could not possibly be him making them.

How had he ended up in this situation again? He thought he had it under control. He had thought he would be fine as long as Maka stayed by his side, but he was wrong. Soul knew this was coming weeks ago, but he didn't want to tell his Meister because he knew she would overreact and begin to worry about it. They had just took the next step in their relationship a few months ago, and he didn't want to let something like this get in the way. They were able to overcome the madness before, together, but he felt like this time was going to be different.

Soul's screams of agony was coursing through Maka's veins, and echoing in her mind. She couldn't handle just standing there, doing nothing, while her partner was in this much pain. There had to be something she could do to help him with this. Maka felt her body make the unconscious decision to move, but something held her back from going any farther.

"Maka, you must stay here. It's too dangerous to get near him right now," Stein had grabbed Maka's arm, preventing her from going toward Soul. She knew she had to go to save him. He needed her right now. "He can break free of the madness on his own."

No he couldn't. His soul was different this time. It was trying to fight against the madness, but the black blood was too powerful. Why couldn't Stein see that? "Soul needs me right now. He isn't going to win this battle alone." Maka tried to get out of Stein's grip, but his hold tightened.

It was useless trying to break free from him. He was a grown man and she was just a 17 year old girl, but up to this point she's overcome worse than Stein. Soul needed her right now, and she wouldn't allow Stein to hold her back. Soul was her partner, and she had to be by his side at this moment, no matter what the outcome was. Maka whirled around to put more pressure on Stein's arm in order to release her own, and then ran toward Soul. She had to help him, she needed to bring him back from the madness, and she had to do it before he was completely gone from her. She felt like her running had slowed, as well as the world, in those few seconds it took for her to reach him. Maka leapt the last few feet to Soul, her arms outstretched to hug him to her. She will bring him back to reality. She wasn't going to lose him. Not like this. Especially not like this.

"MAKA!" Tsubaki yelled from the on looking group.

Soul finally felt the black blood running through his veins start to dissipate. He was closer to being released from the madness, and back to reality. He would be able to go back to his friends and put this whole ordeal behind him. Soul had lost it for a while there, but as long as he had his friends and Maka he would be okay. He would be able to continue living out his life as normal as possible. The madness wouldn't have won this time around.

Once the black blood's effects had disappeared, Soul could feel the silence in the room he was standing in as well as a heavy weight around his chest. He slowly opened his eyes just to be met with the fearful faces of his friends. Had he scared them with his outburst due to the madness? He was fine now, he promised. They should all know that. This wasn't the first time he had lost control, but then he realized there was one face missing from the crowd.

"Soul?" Maka weakly whispered. Soul looked down to where he felt the heavy, to see his Meister there looking up at him. His crimson eyes met her emerald ones, but there was something missing. He didn't see the light that was normally in them, or that sparkle she saved just for him. There was something wrong with her, and he knew it. When he further inspected the situation, what he saw made him wish he was still trapped in the madness because this was the worst possible outcome for a situation like this. During his entrapment his arm had transformed itself into a scythe, and had pierced Maka in the stomach.

"Maka?" Soul's heartbeat started to increase. This couldn't be happening, not now. He wasn't ready to lose her. He couldn't lose her, but what could they possibly do? She wasn't injured because of a wound similar to his. He had actually pierced right through her causing her to lose quite a bit of blood at the same time. He was going to lose Maka, there was nothing he could do about that, and it was all because he had lost control again.

She had felt the pain before she realized what had happened and could register everything in her mind. Maka wasn't going to last long, she knew that, but she had to make it a happy one for him at least. Soul would go on without her, she was positive about that, but she had to lessen the blame on himself as much as possible. She couldn't let him go on in life continuously blaming himself for her death because when it all came down to the real cause, it was all her fault. If she had just listened to Stein and stayed back, she wouldn't be in this situation, but her actions couldn't be taken back now.

"Soul, it's going to be alright," she raised her hand to rub his cheek, and right on cue he started to cry. She had only seen him cry once before, and like the last time, she felt the pang to comfort him pull on her heart. "Don't cry. You came back to me and that's all that matters. I don't blame you." Maka put on a small smile, hoping that would show him that she didn't resent him for it. She knew he wasn't able to control himself when the black blood took over.

Maka could feel her world getting colder and darker as she slowly started to slip away from her friends and Soul. Her body became weaker, every muscle in her body begging to give up the fight she was prolonging, she finds it harder to keep eye contact with Soul, and her eyes are becoming heavier as the seconds pass. She can't last much longer, she'll have to give in soon, but she still needs to say goodbye to Soul. Maka tries to reach out to his soul with hers when her words aren't able to surface, her mouth refusing to move for her. She has to say goodbye and I love you one last time. She can't leave this world without him knowing that. After putting the last of her strength into it, she's able to reach him and tell him everything she can't do physically. She tries to let him know that she doesn't regret one moment she had with him up to this point, that he was the best thing that's ever happened to her, how much she loves him and needs him, how much he had changed her for the better in the time the spent together, and that he had to move on from this eventually, she won't resent him for he does. Maka begins to feel a tug on her soul that she knows isn't coming from the person standing in front of her, her hand falls from its location on Soul's cheek, her eyelids get heavier, the connection with Soul is lost, her body goes limp, and Maka's life in this world is gone forever.

"_I am your weapon partner, Maka. That means I'm always prepared to die for my Meister. Except I wasn't able to this time. I'm sorry."_


	3. Into the Unknown

A/N: This turned out longer than I expected it to, but I don't want it to be a multi chapter story because I didn't have that much originally planned. I will write a sequel to it, though. This story is about Maka finding out if the stories about the mysterious creatures that haunt her village are actually true.

**Into the Unknown**

Maka had always been told not to go to the outside border of the town, where the woods and the creek kissed, because there were things that lived beyond with the intention to kill. The creatures, she was told, were those of nightmares and horror stories. They had pale skin, red slit eyes, sharp teeth, pointy ears and nails as sharp as knives that they used to cut their prey open. She had heard these stories of disappearances and sightings of the creatures, and they had been the cause of so many nightmares. She remembered staying up as a child because her mind was racing with images of the creatures. Even her friends at the school would tell her stories of their own encounters with the creatures that they barely escaped from. As she got older, she started to believe in the stories less and less, and questioning their authenticity. If there were encounters, and the creatures were truly as vicious as they sad, why did they allow their prey to escape like that? Shouldn't they have devoured them? Or follow them when they did escape so that they didn't have any witnesses since they were private creatures? These were some of the questions that had bothered her for years.

She began to truly wonder about the creatures when she overheard one of the boys in town telling whoever would listen to him. The boy, however, was the town story teller who liked to fib about his past endeavors to make himself seem better than everyone else, and to be the talk of the town.

"And there I was, face to face with the hideous creature, his claws were outstretched to rip me up and eat me, but I quickly slayed my knife at his hand and cut it off. The creature screeched and backed away from me, for fear that I, the great Black*Star, would cut his head off. Then the repulsive thing scampered back into the forest, but it left its hand behind so I took as a souvenir."

Maka rolled her eyes when he finished telling the story. She had known Black*Star since they were little, and knew that about 85% of the things that came out of his mouth were exaggerations of the truth. She highly doubted that he even saw one of the creatures, and if he did, why didn't he drag the hand he supposedly cut off around with him? There was nothing that sounded like the truth in his story. This got her to thinking, though, where there really creatures on the outside border of the town? Did they really look like the stories claimed they did? She had to find out for herself, so one night, when her Papa was fast asleep, she snuck out of the house donned with only her red cloak above her pajamas and a lantern. She was determined to find out if these creatures truly existed or not.

She was lucky about the time she had chosen because usually there were guards roaming the streets, but by the time she left her home they were already at the bar getting drunk. She knew the way only through the stories she had heard. She had to travel all the way down the main road in town until it ended, take a turn to the right through some bushes where she would find a dirt road behind, follow the dirt road until she reached a bridge going over a creek, cross the bridge and then follow the creek down to where it disappeared into the dark woods. Once she entered the woods, and travelled far enough, she would encounter at least one of the creatures, if she was lucky enough.

The journey to the location where there the most sightings, took look longer than Maka had expected, and once she reached her final destination, she stopped before entering. She had to take a small breath, not expecting herself to actually have come this far. She was actually standing at the edge of the forest, about to step foot in the place that was the basis of her nightmares for so long, where the creatures that haunted those same nightmares. Maka wasn't completely sure if she was ready to come face to face with one of the creatures she had only heard horror stories of all her life, but she had come this far and could not wimp out at the last minute. She was Maka Albarn, she had overcome worse than this, so she was able to conquer this too.

Maka adjusted the hood of cloak, lifted the lantern higher so that she could see where she was going better, and took that first nerve wracking step into the forest. She had expected to see one of the creatures right when she stepped foot into the forest, but she was surprised when nothing happened. Based on the stories, the encounters happened almost immediately, but that wasn't the case for her which made her believe that maybe the stories weren't true after all. She continued going farther into the forest, and after a few minutes of travelling with nothing happening, Maka stopped and looked around the forest. As far as she could tell there was nothing here, there was nothing moving in the forest, no life at all, not even the wild animals were active.

"Who are you?" a deep male voice asked from behind her causing Maka to jump a little.

"Who's there?"

"I asked you first," she heard the male make a small growling noise toward her. Was this one of the creatures she had heard about? Why was it asking who she was instead of devouring her on the spot? No matter what her explanation her brain came up with, Maka's heart rate would not slow down.

"Where are you?"

"Right behind you," this time the voice was closer to her which caused her to make a move like she was about to turn around. "Don't even think about turning around. I'll ask one more time, who are you? If you don't answer, you will regret it."

"I'm Maka Albarn, from the village down the way," Maka could feel her palm start to sweat around the lantern she was holding. She suddenly started to feel hotter under her cloak, which was weird since the night air was cool. "Who are you? Or what are you?"

"So you've come to find out if those stories your village tells are true?" Maka gave a small nod to his question, pondering what was about to happen. "Why don't you turn around to find out?"

Maka stood there for a while trying to decide if what he had told her was a trick or not before turning around to look at him. What she saw surprised her. He didn't look anything like what she had heard about. His eyes were red, but they weren't as menacing as they were made out to be, his hair was snow white, skin not at all pale, fingernails looked normal, and a bored façade on his face. He looked like a human being rather than some hideous creature.

"The stories aren't true then?"

"I haven't seen anything in this forest like your villages stories have been saying all this time, and I've been here practically my whole life," the boy gave her a small smile. Maka noticed that his teeth did look sharp, but they weren't scary.

"What's your name?"

"Usually people from your village would have run away by now. Aren't you afraid of the big bad wolf?"

"Why would I be afraid of you? You haven't even done anything." At that, the boy took a step closer to Maka, raised his arm to pull down her hood, and then proceeded to move his hand to pull back some stray strands of hair before she slapped his hand away. "Aren't you a rude little one? You came here to see me, in my own domain. That kind of shit may be okay where you're from, but here it isn't taken that lightly."

"I'm not that big a fan of a complete stranger just taking the opportunity to touch me like that, especially when he hasn't even told me who he was," Maka spat at him taking a small step back. She wasn't going to be taken advantage of this guy just like that. "I may have come here of my own free will, that does not mean you can just take advantage of me like. I am a guest in your "domain" so I should be treated as one."

"My name's Soul. Our rules are different here. When you enter this forest, you are to abide by our rules," the boy named Soul was looking at her like she had started to annoy him.

"Us? There are more of you?"

"What do you mean by "you"? It sounds like I'm a completely different species than you. We're humans, just like you. Your village has been lying to you all these years."

"If you're just like us, then why are you living out in the forest rather than the village?"

"Because we're the outsiders. The ones your little town have deemed as the outcasts from birth. Haven't you ever wondered what happen to the women that are pregnant, and then they suddenly lose their baby when they give birth?"

"I always assumed that they just died."

"You really are naïve aren't you? They're given to the people who have made their home in the village, and raised there. We're told the truth all our lives which is why we choose to scare one of you when you stumble into the forest. Some of them are so startled when one of us appear that they run out of here before even seeing us. Except for you. You're the first one to stick around this long."

"You don't frighten me. If the stories were true, I probably would have ran away, but you aren't exactly what I had expected. I didn't think you would look human," Maka ran a hand through her hair, becoming aware of how she looked standing in front of Soul. She must have looked ridiculous since she was wearing just her pajamas with a red cloak, her hair was a mess, and luckily she had brushed her teeth before coming her she would have had bad breath.

"Would you like to see my village?"

Maka took some time to register his question. When she first came into the forest, she did not expect to be invited to visit a new village, and most importantly she did not expect that said invite to come from a person who did not look like the creatures she had heard of all her life. So far her expedition had been anything, but what she had expected. She was sure this village would be different from hers, and it did intrigue her curiosity about it. Maka gave a small nod in answer to Soul's question.

"Put your hood back up. I may be okay with you, but I don't believe my village would feel the same way." Maka did as he told her to and he led the way to his village, but first he told her to leave her lantern near the edge of the forest where she had first entered.

The journey to Soul's village didn't take as long as Maka had expected it to. The village wasn't really that far from the entrance to the forest, where someone from the village was always bound to be in case someone wandered in. Soul's home wasn't that different from Maka's, except for the fact that it was busier and seemed to be brighter. There were people in the streets talking, laughing and drinking, even the shops were busy for this time of night. Compared to her village, that always seemed to be boring and grey even when the sun was shining, this one was livelier and more exciting. There were so many things to see and hear, and all the people seemed to be interesting. They did have some abnormalities about them like Soul did with his red eyes and white hair, but they didn't distract from the fact that they were human. Maka still couldn't fully understand why her village was so determined to outcast them.

Soul showed Maka all the different areas of his village which included the different types of food they had to offer at the little street stalls and some of the shops themselves. He also showed her some shops that offered thing that she couldn't find in the shops at home. Soul bought her a few things that she had gotten overly excited about, including a book about mystical creatures. Overall, Maka's experience at the village was different and something she had never experienced before. She loved it here, and would love to continue visiting this new town. When the time she spent at the village was getting a little later than what Maka had originally expected, she asked Soul to lead her back to the forest's edge so she could return to her village. She had to make it home and be in bed before her Papa woke up, or else he would worry until she came home and have everyone out looking for her.

"Will you come again sometime?" Soul asked once they reached the location she had left her lantern.

"I really enjoyed the time I spent here. It was definitely a new experience for me. I would love to return," Maka told him with a smile plastered on her face.

"How about tomorrow?"

"Let's agree to meet here tomorrow at the same place and same time, okay?"

"Promise?" Soul gave her another one of his sharp toothed smiles.

"I promise."

That night, when Maka finally arrived home from her small journey, her dreams consisted of her time Soul and exploring his village together. She was happy about her decision going to find out the truth about the forest, which included the actual truth behind it. Knowing that the stories she had grown up with were indeed false, brought a feeling of relief to her as well as embarrassment. She had had so many nightmares that were haunted by those stories, just for to find out that there was nothing truly to be afraid of. Maka fell asleep with a small smile on her face excited about the next time she would see Soul, just like she had promised.


	4. New Beginnings

A/N: Here is the sequel to 'Into the Unknown'. I hope you enjoy it and reviews are always welcome :)

**New Beginnings**

"According to this book I found, there are actual lands that are covered in sand as far as the eye can see, places made completely of ice, and mountains that release this hot liquid called lava. Isn't that exciting? We can go explore these lands! There's more to this world than just our village." Maka was walking down the street with her best friend, Tsubaki, telling her about the new things she had read from her latest book. She had been meeting Soul in the forest for the past four months now, with the only person who knew about her rendezvous' being her best friend.

"What have I told you about talking like that? If someone were to overhear you, you will be punished. You know the rules, Maka," Tsubaki whispered to her friend. She was right, talking about leaving the village in any way, other than the one time venturing into the forest stories, was forbidden and punishable via public humiliation. She had only seen it happen once in her lifetime, swearing to herself that she would never do be the person on the village stage where they took place.

"No one is around to hear me, and those who are, aren't even paying attention."

"It doesn't matter. Where did you get that book anyways?" Maka answered by giving a sheepish look to her friend. "You went back into the forest didn't you? I thought you promised me you wouldn't go back in there. It could be dangerous! No, do not even tell me that this Soul guy is trustworthy. You barely even know him!" That wasn't true, Maka knew it, but she didn't want to risk another argument with her friend over what was right and wrong again.

"I know, but I've been careful."

"Going to a place that you have been told is dangerous is not being careful. Anything can happen to you, even though nothing has so far. You never know what this boys intentions really are. Promise me you won't go back into that forest, or else I will tell your father." Her Papa was the last person she wanted to find out about what she was doing when he was asleep, he would go ballistic if he found out, probably forcing her to go through the humiliation or worse exile.

"I promise I won't go back to the forest," she mumbled. However, promises were always meant to be broken, because that night Maka still made the short journey to the forest. She continued wearing her red cloak by the request of Soul, because according to him if the people in his village saw her, they would recognize her automatically as someone who didn't belong. When prompted to explain further as to how they would know, all he told her was that she looked too normal compared to the other people there. When she reached their usual meeting place, she found Soul leaning against one of the trees with his eyes closed, he looked like he was sleeping.

"You finally made it," he said making her jump a little.

"It took longer than expected for my Papa to fall asleep. How did you know I was here?" Maka could have sworn she was being as silent as possible.

"Your footsteps are really loud. I heard you before you even entered the forest." Soul smirked at her, moving from his position on the tree. "Shall we get going?"

He led the way down the usual path they took to get to his town, they usually did this in silence, not having much to say to each other until they entered his village. It was most likely because they both feared that if they did more than the regular greeting in the forest, someone unwanted was going to find them, forcing them to go their separate ways. However, this time it would be different, because Soul changed his direction half way to the village which surprised Maka. They always stayed on course the past times she came to see him, always going to the book shop so she could look through their collection, or being introduced to a new type of food.

"Where are we going? We always stay on the path to your village."

"I've decided to take us somewhere else today. Don't worry, I think you'll enjoy it better than the village."

"You are going to eat me, aren't you? I should have listened to Tsubaki."

"Who's Tsubaki? And I'm not going to eat you, didn't I tell you I wasn't a cannibal?"

"She's my best friend back home. I remember you telling me that, but it could have all be a rouse so you could catch me off guard later on. I guess this is that moment."

"If you really believed that you would have turned back by now." Soul gave her a knowing look. He was right. If she really believed her life was in danger, she would have left the forest a while ago, but the truth was she had come to trust the boy after all the time they spent together. Not once had he shown her that he was dangerous, even though his looks told her that she shouldn't try to form a friendship with him. He never once made her feel like her life was in danger, including their walk through the forest to a new location. No, she was positive he wouldn't trick her into a trap. He wasn't that type of person.

"I finished reading that book I bought last week." Maka wanted to make small talk, getting tired of the silence between them.

"What was it about again?" Soul slowed his pace so he could walk next to her instead of in front of her, making the conversation more personable.

"It talked about these different lands that are out in the world. There are places that are covered in ice, and sand! I've never heard of such a thing. Then there are bodies of water that are made up of salt. Salt! Can you believe that? I think I've only tasted salt once in my lifetime, it's really rare for us to find it."

"I don't think I've ever tasted salt. What is it?"

"From what I can remember, it's sour, bitter, and really not that tasty by itself, but when you put it on some foods, it makes it taste better."

"And that's in water?"

"I know, it sounded weird when I first read it too, but the book swears it does exist. I would love to go see it someday, but that would never happen."

"Why not?"

"If I even mention leaving the village to my Papa, I'll be punished. Can you imagine if I left to go on an adventure like that? I think I might be disowned."

"Being disowned isn't that bad." Soul smirked at her before stopping. "We're here."

Maka looked to see where he had taken her, and she was taken aback by what she had seen. She only saw it once, in a book she had bought a while back, but seeing it in person was more breathtaking than a photo could ever convey. Soul had taken her to see a pond.

"I found it earlier today when I was out hunting. I thought you might enjoy it."

She didn't know what to say, so she turned to him and pulled him into a tight hug. This was the best thing anyone had ever done for her, and she was grateful for it. When she pulled away she noticed that she had caught Soul off guard, giving him an apologetic smile, she turned back to the pond. The way the full moon and the stars reflected off the surface made it seem like it came out of her book that was filled with fairy tales, it was like something out of a dream. The soft croaking of frogs, chirping of the crickets, fascinated Maka, it was the beautiful sound of nature. She went to sit by the water's edge, turning around to invite Soul to join her, who happily followed her actions. She watched as the occasional small ripple disturbed the silence of the pond coming from the fish that were swimming below, or when the turtles would pop their heads out of the water. The wind blew through the cattails and the long grass that bordered one side of the pond, and Maka noticed that there was something white amongst them.

"What's that?" Maka asked Soul, pointing toward the strange creature.

"That's a swan. They're a type of bird."

"I read about them in one of my books. I've never seen on in person, though."

"If you came during the day you could probably watch them swimming around."

If Soul said he didn't enjoy spending time with Maka, he would be lying. He would also be lying if he said he didn't enjoy showing her new things. He liked to watch as her eyes sparkled when she was exposed to new things, it filled him with a nice warm feeling especially knowing that it was him who was showing it to her and not someone else. There were so many things in the world beyond her village that he wanted to show her and take her to, even knowing that it might be impossible in the end. He had to get her away from there, he wanted her to actually experience being alive instead of cooped up in a place that would end up suffocating her, even if she didn't realize it yet.

They spent their whole time together at the pond, with Maka marveling at the nature around her and Soul engulfed in her happiness, before heading back to where they would go their separate ways until the next night. Soul grabbed Maka's arm before she could venture off, however, causing her to turn around to look at him, trying to figure out why he had stopped her. He leaned down to lightly kiss her, catching Maka off guard. When he leaned back up, she started to miss the warmness that surrounded her.

"Another." She whispered, and Soul did as Maka asked, lightly kissing her lips again. When he moved back, Maka leaned up, wrapping her arms around his neck, to chastely touch his lips again. There was no tongue, or lip biting or sucking involved, just two lips moving together as one, but she could still feel the warmth bubbling up inside her a his hands moved to her hips. It was a nice first kiss with their noses bumping together, the smell of their breaths mingling together, until she realized that it was about time she should be leaving to go home before her Papa woke up. She broke the kiss, feeling her checks begin to warm hinting at a blush. "I'll see you again you tomorrow night?"

"Tomorrow night." If the moon wasn't shining so brightly, she would have missed the light redness of his checks. On her way home, she smiled, touching her lips and wondering when she would be able to kiss him again, but a more passionate kiss, like the ones she had read about in her illegal romance novels.

To say Maka went to bed blissfully, would be an understatement. Before this point, she knew her feelings toward Soul had improved immensely, but she was not entirely sure how strong they were until this point. The kiss that they shared wasn't passionate like the ones she had read about in her romance novels, instead it was sweet and nice leaving her with the feeling of wanting more as well as indescribable happiness. She wanted to be with Soul more than anything, the only problem was that she would have to leave behind her Papa and Tusbaki if she wanted to live her life with Soul. He would not be allowed to come live with her here because he had already been deemed different and an outcast before he could even speak up for himself. Her villages system was entirely too unfair because, as she had learned from her visits with Soul, the people in his town were not that different from the ones in hers. They may look different, but their actions were the same. Maka wanted, no needed, to find a way to destroy the system in her village so she could be with Soul, but until that day she will allow herself to be immersed in her happiness.

However, her happiness would be short lived.

"Maka, I have great news for you." Her Papa was entirely too happy especially for it being this early in the morning, but she was hoping the news would be worth it. "I have arranged for you to be married with the butcher's boy, Ox Ford. Isn't that great?"

It took a while for the gears in Maka's brain to start working out what her Papa had just told her, feeling stunned when she fully processed the information. Her Papa had arranged a marriage for her, without telling her, this was not what she had hoped for. Arranged marriages were common occurrences in her village, but she had given up on being in one a long time ago since no boy showed any interest in her. Ox Ford though? She had only talked to him once, and he gave off the impression that he was a snob who thought he was better than her, needless to say they did not get along. Now she was supposed to marry him? She didn't want to. She didn't feel the same way for him as she did for Soul.

Later that night, still thinking about her arranged marriage, Maka met Soul in their usual spot, but he noticed something was off about her. She wasn't her normal cheerful self, not trying to make small talk as they walked to his town. He could feel that something was wrong with her, but he wasn't completely sure what it was. When they entered the town, she wasn't excited about going to the bookstore or any of the cafes like usual, walking around with a blank stare, not responding to anything. She was completely lost in her own world that she had bumped into one of the people in the street.

"Watch where you're going!" the brawny man yelled at her.

"Oh I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Then start watching or the next time you'll get more than just being yelled at!"

"Hey, she said she was sorry! It won't happen again." Soul interjected. The man just walked off, mumbling to himself, but Soul wasn't going to ignore this. Maka never did something like this. He had told her on her first visit here to watch who she walked into because there were some people ready to fight over the smallest of things. He grabbed her arm, dragging her down the street toward a back alley so they could talk in private. "What the hell is wrong with you? You've never done something like that."

"I just have a lot on my mind right so I wasn't really paying attention to where I was walking. I'm sorry. Can we just continue what we were doing?"

"You weren't even paying attention to what we were doing, Maka. I took you to the bookstore, you didn't browse around like you usually do, then I ask you if you wanted to try the new dish that café came out with, and you just ignored me. Something's wrong, just tell me what it is."

"I don't think you would want to hear it…"

"I don't give a damn about what it is. Just talk to me." Soul's eyes were pleading with Maka to tell him what was wrong, she could feel her heart breaking already, but she was inclined to tell him.

"W….Well…it's just that….my….my Papa…kind of….set up an arranged marriage with me and one of the boy's from my village." Maka avoided making eye contact with Soul as much as she could because she felt him tense up after she said the word "marriage". She couldn't face the hurt she knew was on his face.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, neither one wanting to be the first to break it for fear of what their voices would sound like. Soul was going through a wide range of emotions. He was sure that they would be together after their kiss yesterday, believed that she felt the same way about him that he did about her. She had returned the kiss, no, she actually continued to initiate it.

"Where does this leave us?" he finally asked her. "You can't just tell me that kiss yesterday meant nothing."

Maka started to wring out her hands, trying to decide how to put her answer into words. "I don't know what to tell you. I can't just abandon my Papa to come live here with you. I don't know what to do. I've been trying to figure it out all day, but I haven't come up with a solution."

"What is there to figure out? Do you want to marry this other guy or not?"

"Soul it isn't that easy! I'm the only family my Papa has left! If I leave him just like that, I'll break his heart and I can't do that! I just can't! Please understand, Soul!" Maka grabbed hold of his arm, her eyes pleading for him to understand. Her expression broke his heart, he didn't want to lose her but at the same time he couldn't really ask her to just leave her father like that.

"I don't want to lose you though. If you marry this guy, we'll never see each other again." Soul whispered. Maka moved her hands to pull Soul's face down, locking her lips with his. He immediately reacted to her actions, taking her bottom lip between his to suck on it. Her hands pulled on his hair, while one of his hands rested on the small of back bringing her closer to him and the other cupping the side of her face, thumb rubbing her check lovingly. She mimicked his earlier move except biting his bottom lip instead, he felt her tears falling on his thumb as well as merging onto their lips. He moved his hands to hold her face closer to him, pressing their lips together for one final moment before moving back a little, touching forehead to forehead, both trying to catch their breath. She kept her eyes closed, allowing the tears to freely fall from her face while Soul gently brushed them away.

"When are you meant to be married?"

"There's a celebration in a couple of days, which usually happens before the actual wedding," she whispered.

"Take that time to decide what's best for you. Don't think about this other guy, your Papa, or me, just think about you. You need to decide if this is what you want, if marrying him will make you truly happy. You will have to live with your decision, no one else can make it for you." Soul lightly kissed her nose before moving away, pulling the hood of her cloak back up, and taking her hand. "Come on. I'll walk you back so you can go home."

They walked in silence, hand in hand. When they reached the location to say goodbye, Soul pulled her into a hug, squeezing her arms, his hand traveling down her arm to meet her hand. Keeping their fingers intertwined, Maka turned around to go back to her home, releasing his hand when the distance became too great between them to continue. Soul stood at his spot, watching her walk back, until she was consumed by the darkness.

Maka spent the next couple of days thinking about and dreading the celebration that was coming entirely too soon. Tsubaki was more excited about the whole ordeal than she was, but Maka tried her best to pretend that she was happy about it even if her emotions inside didn't match what she expressed outside. She allowed Tsubaki to make a majority of the decisions for the celebration and her wedding including what she would wear. It didn't really matter, she didn't care to look pretty for Ox Ford because he wasn't Soul. She knew deep down that this wasn't what she wanted, she would never be truly happy with Ox, being the girl who stays home, abiding by the gender roles that she was meant to take. She wanted to travel the world, not stay cooped up in this little village for the rest of her life when she knew what was waiting for her to explore and experience.

By the time of the celebration, Maka had made her decision, she just had to tell everyone else. The celebration was taking place in the village square, where everyone in the village was dancing and having a merry time, occasionally coming up to Maka to congratulate her. She did the usual pleasantries, trying to keep up with appearances, making sure she played the part of a blissful bride to be well even though she was screaming on the inside. This was definitely not something she wanted, no matter how much she loved how the light blue dress fell on her or that she liked how Tsubaki had done her hair, blonde locks framing her face with two braids on the side pinned back and donning a flower crown. No, none of that really mattered because she didn't want to look pretty for Ox.

After some time, Maka glanced around at the blissful guests dancing with each other to the tune coming from the town's band, until her eyes landed on someone hiding behind one of the buildings. She recognized the person, giving them a small smile of acknowledgment. He gave her a smirk, nodding his head telling her to follow him, before disappearing. Maka made sure no one was watching her before she walked in the direction that the unexpected guest went.

"Soul, what are you doing here? If someone see's you they'll know you're not from here."

"I had to come see you. You look different without that red cloak of yours."

"You should be glad you did. I made my decision." Maka gave him a small smile, watching as he stood up straighter, awaiting what she had to say. "I want to go live with you. I don't want to marry Ox. I won't be happy with him. I want to travel beyond this village, and I want to do that with you."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I left a letter for my Papa explaining that I can't go through with the marriage, just in case I decided to leave without telling anyone. It was my back up plan."

Soul put out his hand for her to grab, a smile playing on his lips. "Then let's go. We have so much to see if you really want to go see all those lands you've read so much about."

"But first, let me grab my bag from my home. I need my books, I can't really leave those behind."

"Of course not." Soul withdrew his hand, and followed Maka back to her home. Once Maka grabbed her shopping bag, the biggest one she had that could carry all her books, from her bed as well as her red cloak, her and Soul walked hand in hand down the path that lead to the forbidden part of the forest for the last time.


	5. Promises to be Made

A/N: This is a short little part from a short story I decided to work on inspired by The Walking Dead since I decided to do a rewatch. It was originally meant to be a oneshot, but then I started to come up with more ideas as I typed. This going to be a part of a future chapter for that story, but I wanted to go ahead and share it because this was the concept of the original oneshot.

Also, I saw a review asking about continuing the village story, I've been thinking about it, but if I do then it would be a separate story all together and it would start from the first half because there's a lot I wanted to add in between.

Enjoy this short for now though!

**Promises to Be Made**

Liz was still crying, just not as much as before, by the time they finished making their camp for the night with all the proper precautions. Everyone knew she would take some time to move on from what had happened earlier, but they also knew the pain of losing her sister wouldn't leave for a while. The group had come to a silent agreement that they would let her continue to grieve without disturbance unless it attracted walkers. Black*Star and Tsubaki left the camp to go find some wild animal they could eat, and returned with a few squirrels and a rabbit which they started to cook at once before the sun had completely set. They all ate in silence, nothing much to say since they had lost someone close to them that day.

Soul watched as the group did the same thing they did every night, Maka getting ready to be on first watch duty. The two of them hadn't talked to each other since Patti's death, he was sure her mind was racing with all kinds of thoughts because his definitely was. His first thought, the one that still wouldn't leave, was what if Maka was the one he had lost. He wouldn't be able to deal with it. Soul didn't want to live in this world if she wasn't in it.

"Maka," Soul whispered. She jumped a little, expecting him to have been asleep a long time ago, she slowly turned toward him.

"What's wrong?"

"Can we talk about today?"

"I'm not sure if it would be the best idea right now," she looked around at the other sleeping bodies to make sure no one else was listening. The only sound that could be heard was the wind, even Liz's sobs had stopped informing them she had finally fallen asleep.

"The only person I don't want to overhear us is Liz and she's well asleep by now," Soul reached out to grab her hand and pulled her closer to him. He wrapped an arm around her waist, snuggled up to her, and placed his head in her lap. "Please. We need to talk about this, I know you know that. Neither one of our minds have been silent since the incident today."

Maka ran her hands through his hair to try and soothe him. "What did you want to talk about, Soul?"

"If anything happens to me, like what happened to Patti, I want you to be the one who puts me down, and I'll do it for you."

"Nothing's going to happen to you or to me."

"We don't know that for sure, Maka. Anything can happen. Our lives aren't guaranteed like they used to be."

"You're a fighter, Soul. I've seen you kill those things, including a small group on your own. You aren't going to let one of them take your life just like that."

"But what if I screw up? What would you do if I were to be bit by one of those things? If that happens, I want you to be the one to put me down. I want you to be there with me before I go. I don't want anyone else but you. Promise me that," Soul had moved out of Maka's lap, and was now looking up at her with determined eyes. He wasn't going to take her positive outlook on their situation anymore. She knew the consequences that they were facing right now, especially for the two of them. Falling in love with some in this new world was a very dangerous thing, risking heartache every day because you never know when you might lose the other person.

"I promise. It won't be easy, but I will do it, for you. As long as you promise that if I'm the first one to go, you won't do anything stupid and you will continue living."

"I can't promise that. I decided long ago that I will be the one to say when it's my time to go, and if you die before me, I may not be alive for much longer afterward. Maybe before I met you, suicide would have been the last thing on my mind, but I did meet you which changes that. I'd rather be dead, with you in whatever life there is after this one, than be in a world where you don't exist anymore."

_Crack_.

Maka stood up from her sitting position, positioned her automatic crossbow in the direction of the noise, to wait for whatever it was to make its appearance. Soul could feel her holding her breath which caused him to do the same thing, he didn't want to screw her up when she was protecting their camp. After a few minutes passed by, the creature, a deer, made its appearance into the moonlight. Maka let out the breath she was holding, as well as Soul, and moved back down to her sitting position, placing her crossbow back in its original spot. Soul put his hand out for her, which she gratefully took. He could feel her heartbeat still pounding from the unexpected interruption, prompting him to rub the soft spot under her palm. They stayed in silence for a while longer, until she had finally calmed herself down.

"Soul, I don't want you to talk like that." He looked up to meet her gaze, but she ignored him as she talked. "I want you to continue living. I don't want you to decide the outcome of your life based on whether I'm alive or dead. It isn't fair to you, and it definitely isn't fair to the group. They need you, too, you know that. You've been a big help to us since you joined, we can't afford to lose you."

"We can't afford to lose you either. The group would not have survived as long as it has if it weren't for you and Black*Star. You know that, I know you do."

Maka shook her head, and looked back down to meet his eyes, giving him the smallest of smiles. She was always able to comfort him with the looks she gave him, which helped in his decision of whether he wanted to continue living if she were dead, or not. When he had lost his family, he swore to himself he wouldn't get attached to another person like he had because that was the biggest lose he had to take, but that all changed when he met her. She reminded him of the sunflower that still stood strong in a field of weeds, the sunflower that continued to hold the hope of another day and brought happiness to the lives that were lucky enough to see it. Maka had become his lifeline to continue, and he did not want to lose her. He will fight to keep her by his side, no matter what it took.

"For right now, just promise me that if the time comes, you won't leave my side until I'm gone, and you will be the one to put me down when I reanimate, okay? And I'll do the same thing for you."

"I promise." Maka bent down to kiss Soul, just a small peck on the lips, but when she pulled away, Soul moved his hand to the back of head, bringing it back down for a more passionate kiss.


	6. That Girl is a Problem

I do not own Soul Eater nor do I own the song 'Problem' by Natalia Kills, which is where I got the title. Enjoy!

**That Girl is a Problem**

To say he had a rough day, would be putting it lightly. It was more like a day through the seven levels of hell! He should have known it was going to be a terrible day after he woke up fifteen minutes late for class, walking in after thirty minutes, nothing good ever happens when you start your day off like that. Luckily for him, it was just his music class that he could give a rat's ass about, he should have dropped it back in September. Who the hell even had class at eight in the morning!? Satan, that's who, and his teacher sure as hell was the human equivalent of him, he was sure of it. His professor was always sure to give him shit every single damn time Soul decided it was worth getting up early to even go to class, always complaining that Soul wasn't living up to the fucking Evans name. He would love to tell him that he could shove it up his ass, maybe one day he would when he finally decided to drop the damn class.

That wasn't even the icing on the cake. He had to grab a quick snack from the vending machine before heading to his speech and debate class that was the other side of the campus. Seriously, who fucking decided it was a good idea to put ten minutes in between class when you had to haul ass just to get there on time? It was also on this particular day that Black*Star thought it was a brilliant idea to ruffle that Albarn chick's feathers, which would most likely take up the entire class period, allowing absolutely no time for their professor to even talk after Albarn went off. Today's topic was over feminism and "misogynistic pigs", as Albarn liked to put it. Star did this every two weeks, Soul should have seen it coming, and every time it was over something different.

"If a woman takes authority in a work place, she's called a bitch, but if a man does the exact same thing, he's seen as a boss. A woman can do the exact same thing as a man, but the difference is that her actions are viewed with a negative connotation. It isn't fair, and there should be a change to it." Albarn was glaring at Black*Star from where she sat at the front of the classroom.

"Women are being bitches when they try to control a man's actions. It isn't right. We don't want to be controlled like that. You agree with me, right Soul?"

"Please don't get me into this." Soul banged his head on the desk, attempting to get his point across to Star that he did not want to be a part of this.

Soul waved his hand toward Soul dismissing what he had said and turned his attention back to Maka. "Women are just here to please men. Why do you think God made Eve? So her and Adam could be equals? I don't think so. She was there so she could please Adam, nothing more."

Contrary to what he was saying, Soul knew Star didn't mean a single word that was coming out his mouth at that moment. He was only saying any of it because he wanted to start something with Albarn. Star did it every time, coming up with an argument that would make her flustered just so he could get a rise out of her. Soul had convinced himself it only happened because Star craved the adrenaline rush that it gave him, something the gym and fighting gave him but for some reason preferred arguing over everything else.

"How could you even say that? You are a misogynistic pig, Black*Star!" There it was. Albarn's famous line when describing his best friend. "It's a mystery why you even have friends."

"The same thing can be said about you, since you're such a prude."

The argument did indeed last the entire class time, just like Soul had predicted. The only good thing that came out of it was the fact that he was able to get a nice little nap in the middle of it. When he woke up, the professor had finally gained the courage to come between the two so he could at least tell them about their assignment that was due soon. The rest of Soul's day just continued to get worse. For some reason the universe had decided to go after him for some unknown reason. One of his backpack straps decided it was a good time to rip, he stepped in gum, failed his chemistry test, a student who was running in the café bumped into him knocking the plate he just paid for out of his hand, and to top it all off his iPod was stolen from his backpack. Yes, the universe was definitely out to get him that day for some undisclosed reason.

Soul had tried to take a much needed nap when he was back in his room, but his roommate, Black*Star, chose to play his Xbox with volume so loud Soul couldn't hear his own thoughts. Usually he could sleep under any circumstance, but it was just not coming to him that day. He decided to take a cab downtown so he could clear his head with some much needed fresh air, maybe even visit the record store to see if they had anything new in stock. There was nothing new.

When he left the record store, he realized he was starving so he decided to go to Hooters to eat some wings, drink beer, and maybe attempt to chat up the waitress. The restaurant was a mixture of testosterone and wings with just a few other men sitting at the bar and a few at the tables. It wasn't as busy when a game was on, just the way Soul liked it. He made himself comfortable at the bar waiting for the blonde bartender to finish chatting up a business man who probably stopped by after work. When she finally turned around holding two pitchers of beer, the smile that was on her face disappeared being replaced with dread written all over.

"Albarn?" Soul smirked.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" Maka asked him surprised. He was the last person she had expected to see when she turned around, no one from their school ever came to this Hooters. They all preferred the one that was closer to campus. Suddenly, she felt a little insecure even though she was modestly dressed considering what her uniform was supposed to show. Thank God she was not as busty as some of the other girls that she worked with or else she would be giving Soul a show she wasn't willing to give.

"I was downtown already when I realized I was starving so I stopped in her to grab something to eat. I didn't know you worked here. Since when?"

"That's none of your business." She set down the pitchers on a shorter counter to her left before turning back to Soul. "What can I get you?"

"A beer and a boneless wings with chipotle honey sauce."

"ID?" He took his license out of his wallet and handed it over to Maka. He had turned 21 a few months ago so he was in the clear. "Are you sure this isn't fake?"

"If it was, why would I tell you?" Maka handed his license back to her, walking over to the cash register to place the ticket on a clip, and proceeding to throw it back to the kitchen.

"What kind of beer did you want?"

"A Budlight."

Maka leaned down behind the bar to grab one for him, popped the cap off, and handed it to him. Soul took a sip from it and watched Maka tend to the business man who had grabbed her attention after she handed him his beer. He had to admit, he had always found her a little cute, but seeing her in this setting changed his opinion on her a little bit. Soul always believed Maka was a bit of a prude, but he had never expected her to work in a place like this. She was chatting up the other guy so effortlessly, Soul was positive she was used to it, but she must have always stayed behind the bar. He had been here with Star when the there was a game on, the whole restaurant filled with men, and he knew that the men did not hesitate to be touchy feely with their waitress. Maka would have never agreed to work here if she was going to be exposed to that kind of treatment, based on what her and Star argued about in class.

The way she wore her uniform was more modest than the other girls. Her tank top didn't show off that much cleavage from the top, granted there wasn't much there anyways, and her shorts were on the verge of being booty shorts but didn't quite make the cut. If anything, it was the fact that she showed more leg here than she did at school that made her attractive to the other male, including her blonde hair that some guys couldn't resist for some reason. Yes, Maka Albarn had always been cute to Soul, with a little fire in her spirit, but seeing her in this type of setting made him change his opinion of her. She was no longer the prude girl who would argue over politics and women's rights with Star, she was a women who knew her assets and how to work them, which he saw her do as she talked to the other man.

"What attracted you, the feminist enthusiast, to working here?" He asked her when she turned back around to him.

"It pays well, and I get a good tip when the men that come in get super drunk or are regulars." She had whispered the last part so only he could hear her.

"Even though you have to wear a uniform that looks like that?"

She leaned on the counter, folding her arms underneath her before responding. "Between you and me, the uniform is worth it when the customer is a misogynistic pig who only thinks with their…..personal bits making it that much easier for me to play the sweet and kind card." He watched as a light blush surfaced after saying the last part.

"So you like to be able to play with a man's emotions, believing that he'll somehow get lucky with you, but really they're out of luck in that department?"

"Basically." She pushed herself off the counter and did a Wonder Woman pose before heading to the kitchen area to check on his food. He handed him his meal upon her return, and waved a bye to the business man who had risen from his seat when she came back, leaving Soul her only customer. Maka walked over to where he had placed his money to pay for whatever he had eaten, she grabbed along with the receipt, walked over the cash register and rang him out keeping the change for herself. She looked at the receipt and rolled her eyes before throwing it away.

"Why'd you do that?"

"He wrote his number on it. I guess I was too good with him, but he did leave a decent tip so I'll ignore his boost of confidence there."

"How often does that happen?"

"Less often during the week, but more on the weekends when we get the men who are here on a business trip, like that man." She nodded behind her indicate the man that had left. "He was just hoping to get lucky."

"Why do you work here if that's what happens all the time?"

"Like I said before, the tips aren't that bad, especially when I work back here."

"Maybe I should rephrase the question. Why do you, the same girl who was arguing about women rights, work in a place that you're uniform basically degrades everything you said and you place yourself in a vulnerable place with the men who come in here?"

Maka placed her hands on her hips, rolling her eyes and tongue over her teeth, before letting out a light sigh. "See, that's the problem with you men. You think everything a woman does is to for your entertainment. I can't work here unless it's because my only goal is to please you instead of working my ass off so I can pay for my education." Maka moved to lean on the counter like she did earlier, giving Soul a small smirk. "Not everything a woman does is to please men, especially men who she has no intention of getting with. It isn't my fault if you mistake my sweetness for casual flirting. If you would just treat women like human beings, you would see that we have our own ambitions and intentions. The statement you made earlier and the fact you looked down my top proves my point." Maka lightly slammed her palms on the counter to push herself away, and turned her back to him.

Soul clicked his tongue, rolled his eyes, while taking another drink from his beer. So she had caught him? After he thought his actions were subtle that she wouldn't notice. "Not like there's a lot to look at, tiny tits." He saw Maka flinch at his rebuttal.

"It still didn't stop you from looking, pervert." Maka mumbled under her breath when she walked past him again. Yes, she was definitely cute, and this chance encounter made his day from hell make a complete 180.

Soul extended his stay at the restaurant longer than he had anticipated. He continued his casual conversation with Maka, straying from topics that ranged from what they were watching on television to their homework assignment for the class they shared to what was currently being broadcasted on the news. He knew more about Maka in the short time he spent there than he ever did through the occasional topics that arose in class, granted he did actually talk to about her own personal likes and dislikes rather than getting to know her through the rights she stood by to death. Before he entered Hooters, he had admired Maka from afar for the way she stood by her beliefs, refusing to be swayed, but after getting to know her more, he's meager feelings for her had blossomed into something stronger.

"I get off in about ten minutes." Maka told him while she gave him his change after paying. "Do you mind waiting for me? We can share a cab back to campus."

This wasn't Soul's original plan when he decided to stay for a while longer, but he felt opportunity knocking and he was sure as hell going to take it. "I don't mind waiting."

She gave him a small smile and thank him before tending to the other customers that had arrived at the bar. Soul watched as she kept herself busy, taking orders and handing out drinks. She was definitely adorable when she worked like this, he felt like a real pervert just sitting there watching her go about her business, but he dismissed the thought because he knew her better than the other men that were doing the same thing. Maka's replacement appeared about twenty minutes after she had asked him to wait for her, and stood outside when she told him it would be just a few more minutes so he could call a cab to come get them.

The cab trip back to the dorm was quiet, Maka had changed out of her uniform and was wearing shorts and t-shirt combination with her actual uniform stuffed in her duffel bag. Soul had wanted to start a conversation with her on multiple occurrences but kept chickening out at the last minute, he was starting to believe she thought he was part fish with the amount of times his mouth would pop open and then close. They were never close before he happened to walk into the restaurant she worked at, but after their light banter he believed that their relationship was treading into new territory. He had started to like her even more that the whole trip he was thinking of asking her out on a date. When the cab pulled in front of the dorms, he paid the fare leaving a small tip and followed Maka out of the cab.

"Which dorm do you live in?"

"I live in Founders." It was the farthest of all the other dorms, of course.

"Would you like me to walk you?" Soul offered.

"I'm good. I've walked there by myself before." They both stood there awkwardly sneaking glances at the other before averting their eyes. This was harder than Soul had imagined on the trip here. His palms felt sweaty and he swore his heartbeat had increased a bit, this was so uncool of him. If he wanted to ask her out he should just do it, right? Instead of standing here awkwardly waiting for her to make the first move.

"Well, I'll be going now. I'll see you in class?" Maka started to slowly walk backwards in the direction that her dorm was.

"Um, yea. See you in class." Soul stood there for a few more seconds before he decided to hell with it. "Would you like to go to a movie or something on Friday? With me?"

Maka paused her footsteps to stare at him with her mouth slightly open. Great, he had gone and ruined it. Of course she didn't feel the same way he did. Why did he even get his hopes up like that? A girl like Maka Albarn would never go for a guy like him, not in a million years. He had royally screwed up everything now, and she was thinking of how to reject him lightly, he was sure of it.

Soul opened his mouth to take back his offer, but she answered him before he could. "I would like that." Did he hear her right? She was smiling at him with the beginning of a blush starting to form on her cheeks, so he must have heard it right.

"I'll pick you up at six? We can go out to eat somewhere and then catch a movie."

"That sounds good." Maka walked back toward him pulling out a paper and pen to write down a set of numbers he recognized as a phone number. Handing the paper to him with a small smile playing at the ends of her mouth, she waved goodbye to him, turning around to walk toward her dorm, leaving Soul to stand there grinning like an idiot. Before she could get too far, though, he turned her attention back on him.

"Maka, what's the real reason you work there?"

She paused again, thinking of her answer, and then turned back around so she could answer him. "I just like to be in control of my own actions sometimes, you know?" She smirked at him before returning in the direction of her original destination. Yes, that was definitely something he was able to understand.


	7. Birthday Present

Just a short drabble of slight fluff about something that was in the back of my mind for a while now. It's more in my college AU than the canon story. Also, I may be continuing my village AU (honestly I didn't even think of The Village when I first wrote it, but everyone else did so I kinda just accepted it), but it will be going in a different direction, same concept though. I just need to outline it, but for now enjoy my little fluff drabble. Also, I do not own Soul Eater.

**Birthday Present**

Maka lead Soul down the stairs of their apartment building so she could show him the birthday present she had bought. Soul had a blindfold tied around his eyes that Maka had placed because she didn't want to spoil the surprise when they went to where it was located. Maka had been saving the money for about half a year now and had bought the present the day before, making her even more excited to give it to him. When they were finally downstairs, for some ungodly reason they were stuck with an apartment on the 7th floor of their building, Maka stood Soul in the perfect viewing spot, bouncing up and down because the moment she had been waiting for about a day now was about to happen.

"Happy birthday!"

"Hmmmm….it feels like we're outside. I knew you were kinky, but I'm not sure how I feel about having sex right out in public like this. What if we get caught?" Soul told her.

"Wait, what does that have to – oh oops!" Maka jumped a little when she saw the reason for why he had said. She had forgotten to remove his blindfold. When Soul was finally able to see his present, he stood there dumbfounded. Sitting in the parking spot that was designated for them, stood his present. Maka had bought him a new bike to replace his previous one after he had been in an accident that left it totaled. This new bike looked almost exactly like his last one, same gaudy design and obnoxious orange, it was the perfect present. Soul felt the warm beginnings of the familiar happiness and love he felt when he was around Maka in a more intimate setting starting in the pit of his stomach.

"Do you like it?" Soul looked over at his girlfriend who was standing next to him about ready to burst with happiness. She must have been planning this for months, or she was just being typical Maka and was overexcited because of a birthday present she knew was extremely thoughtful on her part. It was most likely a mixture of both.

"It's a cool present." Soul stuffed his hands in his pocket and stood in a nonchalant position.

Maka's smile changed into a pout at his reaction. "Why do you always have to act like the cool guy? It wouldn't hurt you to get at least a little excited." She said crossing her arms and turning away from Soul.

Soul gave a small smile to her back before stepping forward to wrap her in a tight hug. "Thank you. I love it and I love you." He whispered in her ear and gave her a peck on the cheek.

She turned herself around in his arms to return his hug, giving him one of her dazzling smiles that made his stomach do backflips. "I love you, too. I'm glad you like it. Just be careful this time. I don't want a repeat of the accident."

"It wasn't even my fault."

"It doesn't matter. I want you to be careful on the road, okay? I don't want to lose you." She placed her cheek on his chest and could hear his heart beating rapidly. Maka had thought by now he would have his heart rate under control, but she was glad it still hadn't changed from the first time they were this close to each other.

They stood in the same position for a while longer until Soul broke the silence. "We should go back inside or the birthday dinner you made is going to burn and we'll have to order take out, again."

"I almost forgot I was making you dinner!" Maka released herself from the hug, grabbing Soul's hand so they could go back upstairs to their apartment. When they got to the 3rd floor, he leaned over her to grab the blindfold that was still in her other hand.

"Can we use this tonight when we have my birthday sex?"

"Who said we were going to be doing that?"

"We always have some kind of special sex on each other's birthday." Soul gave her his best seductive grin, hoping maybe that'll win her over if she had actually planned not to have sex tonight. Which he doubted because she was a sex maniac. He had finally role-played her damn fantasy of the sexy librarian and rowdy school boy who wouldn't shut up so she had to punish him for her birthday this year. It was the most embarrassing thing he had done when having sex with her, even if it did happen to be one of their better sex escapades.

"That blindfold was only so I could actually surprise you with the bike. I have other plans for tonight's activities." She reciprocated his seductive grin as they went up the 5th floor's flight of stairs. Sure enough, the activities she had planned were far better than what he could have imagined. She had gave in to trying a few new positions that were in the Kama Sutra book somebody had bought on their last bookstore run. It had definitely turned out to be one of Soul's favorite birthday celebrations that they had so far.


	8. The Unintended Letter

I know I just posted something, but I actually wrote this a couple weeks ago, I think...I honestly don't remember. I posted on tumblr and a few people liked it so I'm finally posting it on here. Also, I have finals this week, then I'm going home for week, and then the summer session starts so I might not be writing that much for a while. But the summer semester is my last one so it'll be worth it. Enjoy this little story for the time being though!

**The Unintended Letter**

What was he doing? Cool guys didn't do things like this, leaving notes in lockers instead of just saying what needed to face to face. This was just stupid. He should be able to face Maka and tell her how he feels about her instead of doing it this way, especially in a really lame way. The only thing stopping him was actually knowing how Maka felt toward him, if she didn't feel the same way for him it would be so embarrassing. She wouldn't make it a public rejection, she'd probably wait until they returned home, but still the anticipation would kill him. And if he did confess his feelings to her face, and didn't reciprocate his feelings, how would their partnership be affected? He didn't want to be wielded by anyone else, and he was positive there wasn't another person Maka wanted to partner with. Her whole goal was to make a death scythe better than her Papa, which she did accomplish, so what exactly would stop her from ending their partnership because of his unrequited feelings for her? Agh, he needed to stop this worrying and just get it over with. Whatever happens, happens, and he won't be butt hurt over it, he'll just move on with his life.

"Hey, Soul, what are you doing by the lockers?" Black*Star was walking toward him. He must have had a free period during this time too. "What you got in your hand there? Let me see it!"

"Fuck off, Star, and mind your own business. This doesn't concern you." Black*Star ignored Soul's protest to snatch the letter out of his hand. Soul stiffened, readying himself for the ridicule he was sure would come once Star noticed what kind of letter he had.

"Is this a _love letter_? Let's see who it's for," Star turned the letter around to see the name that was written on the front of it, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Maka! You wrote a love letter for Maka?! Haha! Oh this is rich! Here let me help you this since it looks you haven't made any progress so far just standing there!" Star took a step closer to Maka's locker to put the letter in the slot, but Soul was quicker, attempting to snatch the letter from his hands.

"Give it back to me! I don't need your help!"

"Like hell, you don't! You've probably been standing out here trying to decide if you should put it in her locker this whole time, haven't you?"

"Like I said, it's none of your damn business!" Soul misjudged a movement Star was going to make, and fell flat on his face, which allowed Black*Star the opportunity to place the letter in Maka's locker.

"See, that was no big deal. Now you just get to wait for Maka to get out of class and find it."

"Fuck you, Black*Star! I didn't even know if I wanted to give it to her yet! You fucking bastard!" Soul had leapt up from his position on the ground to grab Star by the collar of his shirt, pushing him up against the lockers. This was not what he had planned or wanted to happen. There was no way for him to get the letter out of her locker now without using force, but then he would have to explain why he destroyed the lockers, which would put him in trouble with his Meister and the school. Black*Star really did fuck things up now.

"Cool down, man. I'm sure Maka won't do anything irrational to you for something like this."

Soul began to loosen his grip on his friend, lowering him back down to the ground. Soul had to think about this a little more, he needed more time to process that in less than an hour, Maka will read his letter to her. She'll be reading his lame little letter. He had ignored the typical route where you typically write out a long-winded explanation of your feelings, and instead opted out to put it simple by telling her he liked her, asking 'Do you like me?' with two boxes indicating yes and no respectively so she could check one of them. It was the absolute lamest thing he had ever done, and would most definitely damage his cool guy persona he worked so hard on.

"Argh, why did I do it?" Soul slide down the wall behind him and put his head in his hands.

"Because you like Maka," Star mocked.

"Just shut the fuck up for a while, please. I need time to think about this." Star shrugged his shoulders, put his hands in his pockets, and walked off, leaving Soul to mope by himself. He had less than an hour to decide what he should do, before Maka was done with class, came to check her locker, just to find his lame little letter. He could either wait around for her to show up, or avoid her completely, go back to the apartment, to wait for her to come back and give him her answer. Soul was leaning more toward going back to the apartment than anything else.

Soul picked himself up off the floor, walking out of the school hunched over to go back to the apartment he shared with Maka in order to wait for her return. The walk back was long and dreary, haunted with Soul's worse fears running through his mind. He couldn't help but to think about all the possible outcomes with his situation, a majority of them ending with Maka cutting off all ties with him due to the embarrassment being too unbearable. Of course he knew all of this was unreasonable because she would never do that to him, she would at least try to make their partnership work no matter what. Maka wasn't the type of person who would just abandon him for a reason like unrequited love.

When he reached their apartment, Soul decided the best thing to do for the time being was to take a nap. A nap always made him feel better when he woke up, and maybe he would come to find that this was all just a horrible nightmare, none of it never happened, and Maka will never know about his feelings. Unfortunately for Soul, it wasn't a nightmare as he found out a few hours later when Maka got home.

"SOUL! Where are you!?" Maka yelled after closing the door to their apartment. Her roommate was fast asleep in his bed, nice and warm, until he was woken up by a loud knock on his door. "Soul, are you in there? Come out here, we need to talk."

"Go away, Maka! Just let me sleep!"

"If you don't come out here in the next 10 minutes, I will break down this door and go in there myself."

Soul looked up at the ceiling, thinking of the best route to go. He could go out there to face her wrath head-on, or allow her to barge into his room, risking her wrath to be worse than it is now and a beating with a book. "Give me 10 minutes then." Soul decided it would be better, and not so painful, if he just went out there of his own free will. He heard her footsteps travel in the direction of her room, most likely to go change out of her school uniform like she did all the time when she came back, so Soul, after a few stretches, dragged himself out of bed. He had fallen asleep in his school uniform, too lazy to change out of it before his nap, Soul adjusted his clothes where they had become tangled from sleep, and left his room to go sit on their couch to await Maka. She exited her room a few minutes later, as expected in her more comfortable clothes, and walked over to flop down on the couch next to Soul.

"Why did you skip out on class? I thought we agreed you wouldn't pull that shit anymore." That was the last thing he thought she would start their conversation with. Maybe she never saw his letter after all, but even that thought put a huge lump in his throat.

"Didn't feel like going. I had other things on my mind," Soul slouched down farther into the couch, his anxiety leaving him since she hadn't addressed the letter.

"That doesn't mean you can just skip school. You're supposed to be setting a good example to the younger students, you know, since you're the Last Death Scythe and all." They sat in a comfortable silence, with just the ticking of the clock disrupting it, and after some time Maka stood back up. "I think it's my turn to make dinner tonight."

She started to walk toward the kitchen but stopped a few feet away from the couch. "What's wrong?" Soul gave her a questioning look wondering what made her stop all of a sudden. Maka turned back around, leaned down to give Soul a small kiss on the lips, and returned to her previous intended destination. Soul could feel his neck getting warmer that traveled up to his checks. Did that really just happen? So she did get the letter after all.

"What the hell was that about?" Soul jumped off the couch and followed her to the kitchen, but she refused to turn around to face him. "You can't just do something like that, at least not with an explanation. Maka, look at me."

She turned around with an apparent blush on her checks that reflected the one on Soul's face. "Did you not write that letter I found in my locker?" her voice sounded small with a hint of fear in it.

"You did get my letter?"

"So it was from you?"

"What was that kiss for then?"

"You, idiot! That was my response to it!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know that? You didn't say anything!"

"I didn't think I would have to! You're the one who wrote the damn thing!"

"So where does this leave us?" Soul whispered, taking a step back and rubbing his neck. This was an argument that would get them nowhere unless one of them stopped it, and he had to know where they would go from here.

"I did kind of kiss you back there. I thought that would be good way to tell you my answer without actually saying it," Maka had bowed her head, put her hands behind her back, and started shuffling one foot back and forth, her nervous habit.

Soul's smile started to get bigger as he allowed Maka's words to sink in. "So you like me too?" At this Maka's blush grew deeper, and she started to avoid eye contact even more. Soul didn't wait for an answer from her, instead opting to lean down, returning her kiss from earlier. Maka raised her hands to bring Soul's head back down after he pulled back, to bring their lips back together. It took a few seconds for Soul to respond, but when he did his lips captured Maka's bottom lip to lightly bite on it, which she responded with a small moan. They bumped noses until Soul moved his head a little, pulling Maka in closer to him, while she rubbed her hands through his hair. Their bodies felt hot pressed up against each other, but they both ignored it, wanting to be closer to the other one. Their heart rate started to increase, as Soul's light lip biting continued, their breath mixing together in an intoxicating way. They wanted more, needed it, but neither was sure how far to go at the moment so they broke apart. Soul lightly touched his forehead to Maka's, his gaze loving while hers was filled with lust and want, they were both still feeling the high from their previous actions. Their breathing was heavy still, hearts still pounding against their ears. They stood that way for a few more minutes, until Soul laid a light peck on her forehead.

"I think you were going to get dinner ready." Soul reminded her, earning him a light punch to the chest for ruining the moment.


	9. Let Her Go

note: I promise there's a happy ending!

**Let Her Go**

**1 year ago**

"Soul, I just can't do this anymore!" Maka was standing in the middle of their apartment, completely flustered over the argument they were having.

"I told you I didn't do anything with her! Why won't you believe me? When have I ever fucking lied to you?" Soul had been trying to convince her for the last hour that nothing had happened between him and the woman she saw him having lunch with today. He told her it was a business meeting and nothing more, yet she still didn't trust what he was telling her.

"How can I trust you when you're out having lunch with another woman? How do you think I felt when I saw that? You didn't even have the decency to let me know this morning or when you came home! It feels like you're wanting to keep secrets from me! Didn't we agree we would be honest with each other?"

"Yes, we did, which is why you need to believe me when I say I'm not lying! Maka, just please listen to me for once in your damn life!"

"No, because if I let you off the hook this once then you're just going to do—"

"Fuck that bullshit! You know that's not why you're listening to me! You want me to tell you why you're ignoring every fucking thing that comes out of my mouth? It's because of what you're shit of a dad did to your mom, and you still haven't let go! How many times do I have to tell you I'm not like him! You've known me since fucking middle school, you know I've had other girlfriends, and when did I ever fucking cheat on them, huh? Can you tell me? No, you can't because I never did! Why the fuck do you think I would change all of a sudden with you?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm leaving, Soul. For good this time. I'll come tomorrow to get my stuff."

Soul watched her turn around, walking toward the door, allowing her words to sink in. She was leaving? For good this time? He felt a sharp pang of pain in his chest, worry and hurt mixing themselves together, once he fully comprehended her words. It took him half the time with his longer legs to get from where he was standing to where she was with the door half way open. When he reached her, he slammed his hand on the door, closing it with a loud BANG! "The fuck do you mean you're leaving for good this time? Are you breaking up with me?"

Maka looked up at him, her eyes angry but he noticed that she was on the brink of tears nonetheless. When she spoke, her voice was dripping with forced anger. "What do you think you, Soul? I'm tired of us always arguing over the smallest of things, and today was just my breaking point. I can't do this anymore. It was a mistake for us to get together."

"You're the one who always starts those damn arguments." Soul was just as angry and frustrated as she was now, and his voice reflected it perfectly. The next words that came out of his mouth, however, he knew were going to be the biggest mistake he made so far. "Maybe it's not me that's the probably here. Maybe the problem lies with you and you're damn unresolved daddy issues."

Maka pushed him away from her, mouth agape and her adrenaline rushing now. "I'm not the only who has unresolved problems in this relationship, Soul! What about you and you're family, huh? When are you going to finally talk to your parents again instead of running away from them like scared little kid? You're how old, twenty-six? I think it's time that you finally buried the hatchet, don't you agree? Or are you just going to spend the rest of your life pretending like they don't exist?"

"You don't know shit about my family or what happened when we were in high school. Stop acting like you do, and leave my family out of this." They were both attacking the other with their weakness, but it still didn't stop them. Even when they both knew exactly where this argument was taking with them with the final blow they had just given each other. "You know what, fuck it. You want to leave? Then go, but don't expect me to come chasing after you like some damn lovesick puppy. If this is how it was going to be, I'm glad its ending now before we got as far as your damn parents before they called it quits."

Soul stormed off to the bedroom that they used to share, slamming the door behind him. Plopping himself down his bed and putting his face in his hands, he went over their argument in his head. It was one of the worst ones they had since they decided to finally take the next step in their relationship six months ago. Neither of them had ever gone to such lengths in attacking where the other was most vulnerable, especially him. Soul always tried to stay away from the subject of her parents and what happened to their marriage, but he couldn't help himself tonight. Maka was acting more irrational than usual over something that was all in her head. Of course he would never cheat on her, never even believed that he would have to defend himself over it let alone being accused of it. However, that didn't stop him from regretting what he had told her, or when he cried because he had lost the only person in his life that truly mattered.

**1 week ago**

Soul was having his weekly boys night with Black*Star who desperately needed after a week of being in a house with a newborn, which had prevented him from coming for the last three weeks. Star loved his child to death, but he needed some time to himself after the last three weeks he had been through. The only reason he was able to come that night was because Star watched the baby while Tsu had a much needed girls night on her end, so she had decided to repay him with a boys night. What Soul hadn't planned was the unexpected direction their conversation had gone.

"You remember Maka right?" Soul leaned back in the chair he was in, tired of hearing the same conversation over and over again. Since they had broken up over a year ago, their friends did not miss a beat to try and convince them to reconcile with each other, even after being told it would never happen.

"Of course I fucking remember her. It's not like I didn't date her for six months or didn't know her for a majority of my life."

"No need to be sarcastic about it. You should know she's moving to Paris in a week for a job."

"And why the fuck would I want to know that? We broke up, or did you forget? What she does isn't my business anymore. Now can we please get back to this game?"

"Just thought you might like to say goodbye to her since you may never see her again." Soul glanced over at Star, knowing that his last words were true. He had actually heard this same bit of news from Liz a few days ago, and he did already think about going to see her off or at least try to convince her to stay. The only problem was that they hadn't seen each other in over a year and the last thing they said to each other weren't really the best parting words you wanted to say to someone you were once in love with.

**Yesterday**

Soul found himself alone on a Saturday night with absolutely nothing to do except pity himself because he was really going to allow Maka to go to a completely different continent. He convinced himself that it was for the best, that this was the job she had her eyes set on since she was in high school, and that everything would end up okay in the end. That maybe she'll find a nice French guy who would treat her better than he ever did, and they'll end up happily married with three kids or something living in their nice damn French home, eating fucking French food, speaking fucking French to each other, fucking every single night in their king size bed….

No, that was complete bullshit. This was not how things should have happened. He should be going on that plane with her, he should be the one she was experiencing all these new things with. She should be with the person who knew her better than anyone else in the world, experiencing these new things with them and not a complete stranger who would only fall in love with her for the part of her she chose to share with them. They wouldn't know that she had stayed up crying because she caught her dad in bed with another woman, or that she was cold natured person who loved to cuddle under the blankets to stay warm, or that she loved being the dominant one in bed, or that she had terrible taste in music. No, they wouldn't know any of this because they would have missed out on those years when it was most prominent in her personality, before she distanced herself from people of the opposite sex, afraid they would just hurt her.

The person that should be with her was him, Soul should be the one with her, and she should be with him. They hadn't seen each other in over a year, but his feelings for her never truly changed no matter how much he tried to convince himself that they did. He still in love with Maka fucking Albarn, and hearing that she married someone else would be the end of the world for him. Soul wanted to be the person she would give her life to, and be there for her when her life went to shit. He had to stop her from getting on that plane.

**At the airport**

After many calls back and forth between Tsubaki and Liz trying to find out where Maka's plane was leaving and at what time, Soul finally made it to the airport. Unfortunately for him, actually getting to Maka wasn't going to be as easy as it was in the movies. He had to get a boarding pass just to get pass security, the 'I need to confess my love to someone' crap was not going to convince the security guards to let him go. Soul found the terminal she was in just in time to see her handing the boarding pass over to the person at the gate.

"Maka! Maka!" Soul pushed through the small crowd that was blocking his path to get to where she was. He saw her blonde head turn around to see who was calling her, and when he finally made his way through the crowd she walked over to him.

"Soul? What are you doing here?"

"I came because I need to tell you that you can't get on that plane."

She was shocked by his choice of words, but didn't comment on it if she really was. "Why not?"

"Because you can't go to Paris. You need to stay here. Us, breaking up last year, it was a mistake. It was all a mistake. It never should have happened. I didn't mean anything that said, not really. I don't want you out of my life, I want you in it, and you belong in it. I…I love you, Maka. I'm not just saying it like you probably believe I do right now. I really do mean it. I want to spend my life with you and only you."

Maka just stood there, staring at him, mouth slightly open. "I need to get on my flight, Soul. I'm sorry…I just….I need to go. Bye." And with that she turned around and disappeared through the terminal. Soul watched her leave, feeling broken hearted like he did a year ago when she left him. He had his chance to be with her again, but he lost again even after confessing how he felt about her. It was hopeless, they weren't meant to be together and this was proof enough for him. Soul left the overcrowded airport to make his way back to the entrance so he could go back to his apartment, it used to be theirs, and throw himself a pity party.

**Now**

Soul had failed miserably. Sitting on his couch, he pulled out his phone noticing he had a missed call and voicemail from an unknown number. He swiped open his phone, putting it on speaker so he could listen to it.

"Soul, it's me, Maka." He stood up abruptly from the couch, surprised to hear Maka's voice again. "I just wanted to call and say that…I'm sorry. I'm sitting on the plane waiting for my flight to leave, and I was think that I shouldn't have left like that especially….especially not after how things ended between us last year. It was….it was stupid of me. I was more surprised than anything to see you standing there. You were honestly the last person I expected to see, and then after all that you had told me….I didn't know what to say…..I'm so sorry, Soul. I called to let you know that I love you too. I've always loved you, even after our stupid, stupid fight. I never stopped loving you….oh my God. I love you. Excuse me, I need to get off this plane."

"Miss, you need to sit back down, we'll be leaving soon."

"That's great, but I really need to get off this plane."

"Please, sit back down."

"No, you don't understand there's something I just realized and I need to get off this plane. Please just let me get off—"

The message cut out and Soul started messing with the phone to see if there was more and his phone just cut off for no reason. "Fuck, I just want to know if she got off the damn plane." He threw his phone onto the couch and ran his hands through his hair making it look more like porcupine.

"I got off the plane." Soul turned around to see Maka standing in his doorway, he never did get the spare apartment key from her. He walked toward, hands shaking and pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry for everything. It was all a mistake. I want to start over with you. I don't want to let our past get in the middle of us like that again. I want to be with you forever."

"Good because I'm not letting go of you again." Soul brought his mouth down to cover hers. They said more in that moment than they could have with words, repressed feelings being brought back to the surface. She was crying and her tears were falling in-between their lips, but nonetheless it was still a wonderful moment for the both of them.

**A/N**: And they lived happily ever after. This is because I watched the season finale of Friends a while back and was overcome with so many feels because RACHEL GOT OFF THE PLANE! Such a better finale than the one for HIMYM. Also, this story does slightly go with the song 'Let Her Go' by The Passengers


	10. Delusions

"What's wrong, Mr. Grumpy Pants?" Maka was standing by the kitchen counter when he walked in at one in the morning.

He heavily sighed, it was going to be that kind of night. "You know perfectly well what's wrong." He told her opening the refrigerator, grabbing the carton of milk to drink from it.

"It's been two months since the accident. You should go out instead of moping around here all day."

"I do go out." He wasn't really up for having this conversation again.

"I mean you should be out having fun, not just leaving the apartment to go do stupid paperwork at the DWMA. Star has been calling you to have a boy's night every day this week. You should go."

Soul sighed as he placed the milk back in the fridge. She should be yelling at him for drinking straight from it instead of lecturing him. "I told you yesterday I'm not ready to go out yet. I still need time."

"It's been two months, Soul." He looked over at her, eyes filled with sympathy. He didn't want her sympathy right now. "Why don't we go out and do something? We could go back to that jazz café you took me to when we first met, and you can play me something again. I would love for you to play for me one more time."

He sighed again and shook his head. This was definitely like her past lectures to him. "That would be really great, but I've told you before that we can't do that anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because you aren't real." It's been two months since the accident and he was still seeing her around the apartment. Why couldn't she just leave him alone instead of showing up like this? As he walked back to their—now it was just his— bedroom he mumbled, "If I keep seeing you around here I might just go crazy enough to join you."


	11. Learning to Breathe

**A/N: two updates, changed the title and fixed the spelling mistake. This is also an apology for the last chapter.**

**Learning to Breathe**

Soul never really cared for the whole big wedding thing. He didn't want to be the center of attention with all those people watching him, ready to screw something up. But because it was Maka, he decided that maybe he'll be able to handle it for one day. She was always the one who wanted the big wedding, and he knew that from the start. She wanted what her parents didn't have with someone she could trust, and that person was always him.

So that's where Soul found himself on a Saturday in June, standing in the one place he never imagined himself to be. As he stood near the altar, the collar of his suit felt too tight and his undershirt was glued to his skin from sweating due to being nervous. It had nothing to do with everyone looking at him, more that all of this was actually happening. This was a day he never expected himself to be going through.

The side door opened and Soul watched his best man, Black*Star, walk toward him to stand next to him. Star leaned over and whispered, "wait until you see her". Of course he would have seen Maka before Soul did, especially since they had been friends since they were little. Star considered her a sister, and Soul knew he had wanted to see her before she walked down the aisle. Even so, this only increased Soul's nervousness.

The procession music began and the back doors opened to allow the bridesmaids, wearing light blue knee length dresses, in one at a time. His heartbeat increased with each step they took because that meant he was that much closer to seeing his future wife. He was positive Maka could feel how nervous he was from her position on the other side of the doors.

After the flower girl, his niece, walked down the aisle and sat down by Wes, the music changed informing everyone to stand. Soul's heart started pounding against his chest when the ushers went to open the doors again. The moment he had been waiting for all day was finally going to happen. He looked down, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath so he could calm his nerves.

But when he looked at her, it didn't matter because he felt giddy and broke out in a smile, the cool guy persona leaving him entirely. She took his breath away in her mermaid style dress that accentuated the small curves her body really well, her curled hair framing her face wonderfully. Their eyes met and only the two of them were present, the rest of the congregation disappearing. Soul saw his same excitement reflected in her face, but her eyes were shining with the beginnings of tears.

They didn't break eye contact from the moment she entered, her giggling into the bouquet she was holding and him smiling like an idiot. Even when Spirit handed Maka over to Soul, they still maintained contact, and didn't let go of each other's hand when the judge was doing his readings. She pushed her soul toward him, allowing him to feel everything she was feeling in that moment and he reciprocated his. They shared a sideways glance and smiled at each other, this was definitely something they had been waiting for since they started dating.

When the time came to exchange vows, Maka and Soul faced toward each other. These were words that they were meant to be a promise between two lovers, no one else in the world would ever know how important they were. They had decided to write their own vows, considering anything else to be less powerful. They knew each other for so long, that the vows weren't really needed to express their feelings for each other. However, they were important if Soul and Maka were going to enter their new lives together as one whole being, bounded by their connection and love they built together throughout the years.

The exchanging of rings was performed with shaky hands on both ends and an exchange of light strokes down the ring finger. Before the judge even allowed Soul to kiss the bride, he did so with a gleeful expression and the excitement in his lower abdomen became powerful. Maka was truly bound to him, both physically and emotionally, and he was bounded to her. They were going on a new journey together, one that they couldn't see themselves going on with anyone else in the world. After years of being meister and weapon then going to boyfriend and girlfriend followed by fiancée's, they were finally husband and wife.


	12. Child Cussing

******A/N: **I just want to say thank you for the reviews

**Child Cussing**

"Oh fuck" Maka whipped around to look at the little blonde three year old standing behind her. The little girl was crestfallen because the block castle she was building had fallen over.

"Where did you learn to say that?" Maka tried to say it as sweetly as she could instead of letting her anger show. She knew it would be the wrong person to get angry at.

"Daddy says it all the time." Her daughter lightly kicked at the blocks and turned around to watch what was on the tv.

Maka left the little girl where she was and opened her bedroom door, lightly closing it behind her. She walked toward the bed and watched the sleeping figure before abruptly kicking the edge of the bed.

"Wake up!" She yelled and Soul bolted up in bed, hearting hammering and eyes bulging.

"The hell, Maka." He looked at her like she was insane.

She placed her hands on her hips and asked, "have you been cussing in front of Madi?"

"Huh?" He asked while rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes.

"I just heard Madi say 'fuck' and when I asked her where she learned it from, she said you. What have I told you about controlling your language in front of her?"

"You woke me up for this? It's ten in the morning, you should know that's too early for me to even think." Soul laid in bed, turning his back to Maka, prompting her to get on the bed to straddle him.

"I don't want my damn daughter cussing. We had this discussion before she was even born."

"Maybe she gets it from you. It's not like I'm the only one who cusses in this damn house." Maka puffed out her checks and proceeded to hit him on the head.

"I've...told you...to watch...what...you...say...in front...of her...too many...damn times

"Argh it's too damn early for this shit, Maka. If I promise to watch my language around her, can I go back to sleep?"

"Maybe if you also include Star in that promise. Because I know he does the same thing."

"I can't control everything."

"Then I don't know if I'll still be angry at you tonight." Maka crawled off him but before she was completely of the bed, Soul grabbed her wrist to pull her back to him.

"Then just forgive me for now." Soul started to kiss the nook of neck.

Maka lightly pushed him, feigning annoyance. "I'm still mad at you. and Madi is right outside."

"Is she watching tv?"

"She's watching that one show she loves with the platypus."

"Then she'll be distracted for a while." He went back to kissing her neck.

Maka turned around to look at him, giving him a small smile. "She's just like her dad." A month later Maka found out she was pregnant with their second child and when Soul found out he thought it would be funny to teach Madi more curse words. Needless to say, Maka found out what he was doing and knocked him out with one of her books.


	13. Idiot Love

**Idiot Love**

"Can you please tell me why you're in such a shitty mood? You were perfectly fine at the restaurant. I thought it was a really nice date, but somehow it put you in a bad mood."

"Nothing is wrong. Everything was great. It was all wonderful. You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet." Sarcasm was etched all over each word that she said.

Soul groaned and smeared his hand down his face. "It's obvious something went wrong on our date. You haven't said anything to me since we left the restaurant! Just tell me dammit!"

He watched as she clenched and unclenched her hands, standing in the middle of the living room looking up at the ceiling. When she was ready, Maka sighed and turned to face him, eyes gleaming in anger and frustration. "I don't know, Soul, you tell me where it went wrong. You take me to the most romantic restaurant in all of Death City, order us the most expensive dish on the menu, and when we were finished you get down on one knee to pick up my damn fork!"

"You're angry because I picked up your fork?"

"I'm not angry about the fork! Why else would a man get down on one knee in front of his girlfriend?" Soul looked at her confused, he wasn't completely sure what she was trying to tell him. She sighed again, ready to strangle him because he was a real idiot. "I saw the damn ring in your underwear drawer. I thought you were going to propose tonight."

Comprehension finally dawned on him. Of course she would be mad at him over something like that. "I told you it was a dinner to celebrate our 7 year anniversary, and you thought I was going to propose tonight?"

"I did believe you, but then I found the ring and thought you just told me that to throw me off." Now that she had finally released the anger she had bottled up, she felt a little sheepish because it was a dumb thing to be mad at him about. It wasn't his fault he was a stupid man.

Soul closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. After he had gone through all this special planning she had to ruin it by finding the ring he thought was hidden really well. "If you weren't so impatient, I would have proposed to you two weeks from now on your birthday...but, if you were a patient person you wouldn't be the person I fell in love with." He smiled at her dumbstruck face and closed the short distance that was between them, and grabbing her left hand, bent down on one knee. "I don't have the ring on me, but Maka Al-"

"Yes!"

"Can I finish?"

Maka placed her free hand over her mouth covering the wide grin that broke onto her face, and her eyes on the verge of tears. She was the stupid one now. "Sorry, keep going."

"Maka Albarn, will you ma-"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Maka was bouncing on her toes, to overwhelmed with excitement to stay still.

"Fuck it. You know what I'm asking" Soul stood up and pulled Maka into a warm embrace before kissing her tenderly on the forehead, cheeks and then her lips. They were both idiots tonight, but they were each other's idiot.


	14. Intimidation is Key

**A/N: I saw this in post somewhere on tumblr, but I don't remember where and my tag for SE is too much to look for it. If you know, let me know so I can give credit. Also, I have like 4 more short stories I've written and I'm really impatient so that's I've been updating so fast this week.**

**Intimidation is Key**

Soul Evans was working with the FBI for a year when he received his first partner, a gangly blonde girl named Maka Albarn who had just been transferred from another unit. He wasn't completely sure how he felt about having a partner at first, but she seemed to be alright. She definitely made things more interesting when they were out on the field, and she knew her shit pretty well, better than him. They had been working together for about six months now, and Soul had developed more intimate feelings for her. He knew it was bad to get with a colleague, so he never really acted on it. But that didn't stop him from flirting with her on occasion. His favorite thing was teasing her about her looks, the poor girl did not look intimidating in the slightest.

"Just admit it, Maka, you can't intimidate any of these crooks for nothing." They were sitting at their desks, face to face, looking over the files for the case they were working on.

"I can be scary, you just never give me the chance." Maka pouted.

Soul bowed his head to hide the smirk. "Sure you can. I'll believe that when I see it."

One of the suspects for their case was waiting in the interrogation room to be questioned by them. They were currently looking over his file that was given to them by their department head. Soul noticed that he wasn't as bad as the past criminals they had seen together, so a thought came to mind.

"Hey Maka."

"Hmmm."

"We need to go question this guy, how bout you do it this time? Let's see if you can be as frightening as you think you can."

"Really?" Maka perked up from her slump, her dazzling smile giving him that all too familiar warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Yea. I don't think you can do it, but we'll see." Maka fell back in her chair and glared at him.

"How did I get partnered with a grouch like you?"

"Because I was the only who didn't have one already. Plus it can't be that bad. You have a very handsome partner, if I don't say so myself."

"Yea, who's completely full of himself and conceited and rude and irritating and-"

"Do you really want to have a discussion of each others faults? I have a whole list for you." Maka looked back at her case work, mumbling something incoherent under her breath. Soul did notice, however, that she didn't disagree with him being good looking. "Alright, let's go do this."

The walk to the interrogation room wasn't long, it was just down the hall from their office. They did see some other agents and greeted them as they passed by. When they arrived, Soul let Maka go in first since she was going to do the questioning this time around. She puffed out her chest and attempted her best menacing glare. Honestly, she could be scary but that was only when Soul did something to really piss her off. When she was actually _trying_ to be scary, however, she reminded him of a kitten attempting to claim dominance over a dog.

"Mr. Rhodes do you know why you're here today?" Maka was standing in front of the suspect, opting to ignore the chair for her, with her hands behind her back and glaring down at him. Soul watched Rhodes' facial expression and noted that he kept looking between the two of them, most likely wondering why Soul wasn't the one in her place.

"Because you idiots think I'm the one who murdered those girls."

"Don't try and talk down to me. You're the one whose ass is on the line for being arrested." She slammed her hands on the table, making both Rhodes and Soul jump a little. "Now, where were you on March 17th?"

"I already told your buddies that I was at home. I swear I didn't kill those girls."

"That's a likely story and I bet you expect me to believe that, huh?" Was she really using lines from stupid detective movies? Had she not watched Soul for the last six months? He had hoped she would pick up at least something from him.

Maka was really trying her best to be intimidating, but the suspect's facial expression never changed nor his body language. All of her attempts were failing, and Soul was feeling a little sorry for her. A small part of him did want her to succeed in this, to give her a small confidence boost. She was getting nowhere, unless he helped out. So the next time the guy looked over at Soul, he gave him his famous menacing look that worked every time. This time was no different. Soul watched as Maka's demeanor changed, noticing that the crook was a little scared of her.

"See, I told you I could do it. You just needed to give me a chance." Maka said as she sat down in her desk chair.

"That's because this guy was easy. If you can be intimidating to a more threatening criminal, maybe I'll let you off."

"You'll never let me win, will you?"

Soul rolled his eyes. "I'll give you this one. But I doubt it'll happen again."

"Thank you." Maka watched him carefully as he sorted through the paper work that was scattered on his desk. "By the way, thanks for giving him that little scary look of yours. It really helped to loosen him."

Soul looked up at her smiling face, eyes bulging. She had seen what he did with the reflection from the two way mirror. He thought he was careful in tracking her movements so that she wouldn't see it. Soul felt his checks warm up and his hands went instinctively to hide the blush. But Maka had caught it and she giggled at his reaction. It was going to be really hard keeping their relationship strictly work related.


	15. Father Hen

**A/N: ********I'm not going to make the the last one into a multi chap story because I don't know where else to go with it. But if you want to, be my guest. I'm already working on a multi chap story and I have a bad habit of not finishing them. I might do some short little drabbles with the FBI AU, though. Anyways, enjoy this little story.**

**Father Hen**

"She's been out almost all day. When is that girl coming home? I'm pretty sure its past her curfew." Soul was pacing up and down their living room, biting on his nails, hair standing on end because of how often his fingers ran through it.

Maka watched her husband from her spot on the couch, trying to read a book before he started his worrying again. "Soul, she's only been gone for about an hour and a half and it's barely even nine. Come and sit back down, I'm sure she'll be back soon, she just went to dinner with her friends."

"How can you just sit there so calmly? What if something happens to her? You wouldn't be so calm then."

She shook her head. "You're going to worry yourself to death if you don't stop. You've been like this since she turned thirteen and went through puberty. Your hair is going to turn white eventually." She hid her smile behind the book when his hands automatically grabbed at the tips of his hair to check, forgetting momentarily that his hair was naturally white.

"Very funny, Maka. My hair's already fucking white. And what if she gets attacked out there? I knew I should have followed them."

Maka just rolled her eyes. He always became a worrywart when their daughter went out like this. "I'm pretty sure everyone in Death City knows she's the Last Death Scythe's daughter and if they mess with her you'll just come after them. Now can you please sit down? You're making me nervous."

Soul listened to his wife and plopped down on the couch next to her, resting his head on the back of the couch. "How many more do we have?"

"Two."

"And they're both boys right?"

"Were you not there when they were born?" Soul threw her an annoyed look. "Yes, don't worry. The last two are boys."

"Good." Soul let out an audible sigh of relief. He wouldn't be able to handle the stress if they had another girl. It wasn't that he didn't he believe she could handle herself, more so that he knew what was out there, and the fact she wasn't a weapon or a meister didn't help lessen his stress over her safety.

Maka let out a little laugh at this, and Soul gave her a questioning look. "You'll still worry. It's in your nature to worry about things as small as this." She leaned over to lightly squeeze his knee. "But that's one of the things I love about you."

"I love you too." Soul pulled her closer to him to chastely kiss her and then touched their foreheads together. "But I still want to know when this damn girl is getting home. I'm calling her." Maka groaned in response and fell back to her original spot while Soul took out his phone to call their daughter. He was a hopeless case when it came to their children.


	16. Delusions pt 2

**A/N: It got worse...don't read it. There's an actual point where I where I have to put it down because the next part is too hard. Also sequel to Delusions if that wasn't apparent by the title. **

**Delusions pt. 2**

All his friends over at Soul's apartment to celebrate his birthday, except he was the only who wasn't joining in the festivities. Along with everyone, she was there too. Why was she even here? She wasn't supposed to be here.

'Why aren't you joining the others?" Maka asked him.

"Because I don't want to."

"You need to go have fun, Soul. Stop being like this and enjoy your life."

"I can't, Maka."

"Why not?"

"You know why. It's because of me that you're like this. How do you honestly expect me to move on?"

"Stop blaming yourself. It's also equally my fault and you know that. Just this once, go and have fun. If you won't do it for you, then do it for me."

He looked over at her . He wanted to hold her again, feel her being alive again, but she wasn't real. Soul stood up from the table they were sitting at and entered the living room where everyone else was. He wanted to laugh and joke with them, but he didn't have it in his heart to partake in any of it. He just wanted one person to be here, alive instead of just a ghost from the past, standing next to him.

"Why can't you just leave me alone, Maka? What the fuck do want from me?" Soul didn't mean to shout it, but now everyone was watching him. He looked at his friends and could see the concern and sympathy that was etched in their eyes. He hated that look so much now.

"Soul, they can't see me. Only you can." That explained the hint of 'oh shit, I think Soul has finally lost it' on Star's face.

"I'm sorry, guys. I can't do this." Soul left the party to be alone in his bedroom. Well, not completely alone since she followed him in there. But Soul ignored her and sat down on the edge of the bed, placing his elbows on his knees and head in his hands.

"Maka, what do you want from me?" he whispered.

"Don't forget me, but I need you to move on with your life. You're still living in the past and that isn't healthy. You always do this. You retract back into yourself when something terrible happens, and never talk to anyone else about it. Please, Soul, I just want you to be happy again."

"I won't ever be happy again, you know that. I need you here with me." He looked up at her. "I need you here with me physically, not just...whatever it is you are right now."

"I can't do that anymore. But our friends are still here, and they'll always be there for you. Trust them to help you through this. You can't do it by yourself."

"It won't be easy."

"No one is saying it will be, but you need to do this." Maka leaned down to touch her forehead to his. "For me...and for our daughter. She still depends on you and needs you in her life. I can't be there for her, but you can. She needs you right now."

Soul knew she was right. He still had a responsibility to someone in this world. Someone who was a mixture of the two of them. If he was going to do this for anyone, it should be her. He could tell her how wonderful a mother she had, and keep Maka alive in that way.

Everyone was still there when Soul reentered the living room. The first person he saw was his four year old daughter, sitting on Tsubaki's lap. He walked over toward her, picked her up and hugged her for the first time in four months. Yea, he could do this for her.


	17. The Jealousy Complex

**A/N: You get two today because of the last one being the way it is.**

**The Jealousy Complex**

Soul never had a problem with his meister attracting the attentions of the opposite sex when they were first partnered. Granted she was 11 at the time, Maka's looks were still awkward for her long body and childish looking. It wasn't until after she was about 16 that Soul even noticed something was different about her. One night she went to bed as teenager who looked like major jailbait, but when he saw her the next morning it was like she finally blossomed into her looks. Or maybe it was just that he _really_ saw her for the first time.

He sat down for breakfast, blatantly staring at her, trying to put his finger on what was drawing his attention to her. Soul noticed the slight curvatures on her body, the way her waist made a nice curve to give her a more womanly figure. The defined muscles of her legs moving slightly with each move she made as she bustled around in front of the stove, contracting and relaxing to compliment the movement. Her hair was longer, lightly touching her mid-back and swishing back and forth.

When she turned around, his plate in one hand and orange juice in the other, Maka's face looked older, losing some of the baby fat to make way for more defined features. Then Soul realized what was different about her. Maka was no longer flat chested and he was in a world of trouble when he started to feel flustered at the new discovery. He liked her before, but now it his feelings were escalating to full blown desire.

Unfortunately, Soul wasn't the only one to notice Maka's new development. That same day and the days that followed afterward, Maka was the one getting partner requests including more romantic letters. She refused the ones that asked for her to trade Soul for a new weapon, but a she did accept a few dates, much to Soul's annoyance. Every one of the boy's she went out with were jerks and didn't deserve her, in his own humble opinion. But he still watched as she hurried around the apartment, wearing a nice little black dress that hugged those curves of hers wonderfully, looking for the black flats she wore last week on her last date.

"Soul, have you seen my shoes?" Maka stood in front of him, looking frantic. She was already about 10 minutes late with her date downstairs in the lobby waiting for her.

"No. I haven't seen your damn shoes. Shouldn't they be in your closet, clean freak?" Soul didn't enjoy seeing her all dressed for an occasion he wasn't going to be at, or for anyone else other than him for that matter.

"Ugh, you are so useless sometimes!" Maka stormed off in the direction of her room.

"Why don't you just wear those black heels of yours?"

"Because Mark is only a few inches taller than me and if I wear those, I'd be taller than him…..which is really embarrassing." her voice was muffled from being in her closet, but he still heard her.

"You wouldn't have that problem if you were going out with me." Soul mumbled to himself.

"What was that?" Maka emerged from her room empty handed from the search.

"Uh, nothing?"

Maka gave him a quizzical look, but just rolled her eyes instead. "Do you mind going down to the lobby and telling Mark I'll be a while longer?"

A brilliant idea came to Soul's mind. "Yea I'll go tell him."

Soul travelled down the stairs, why the hell did they have to choose an apartment building with no elevator and have an apartment that was on the second highest level? When he entered the lobby he saw Mark sitting casually on one of the overstuffed chairs. Soul recognized him as another meister who was a year older than Maka. He was also sure this douche bag was graduating soon so why the hell was he asking a 16 year-old out on a date?

"Hey, are you Mark?"

"Um, yea. Wow, you're The Last Death Scythe. I didn't know you and Maka actually lived together."

"Yea, it's kinda one of Shibusen's rules….anyways Maka sent me down to tell you she won't be able to make it."

"Oh, okay. Can you tell Maka I'll call her later then?" Mark awkwardly stood up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Actually, you should probably just lose her number and never talk to her again." Soul smirked. "She said she never wants to see you again."

Mark's face was a mixture of shock and surprise, but he left the building anyways. This was the third time he had done this and Maka was completely clueless about it. Soul headed back upstairs to the apartment when he bumped into Maka who had finally found the shoes she was looking for.

"Did you tell Mark?"

"Oh….um….actually he just left. Said something about not wanting to wait for a self-centered girl who took too long to get ready…or something like that." Soul nailed making sure Maka wouldn't talk to him again. But he still felt guilty about his actions when he noticed her disappointed face.

"Oh…okay. I'll just go back upstairs and change."

They walked back up to the apartment together, and went their respective ways when they entered, Maka to her room to change and Soul back to the couch to play his video game. When Maka emerged from her room she was wearing shorts and tank top with no bra on, much to Soul's pleasure, and sat down on the couch next to him.

"So, why is it that my last three dates have all bailed when you went down to tell them I was going to be late?" Maka asked after a few minutes of sitting in silence. Her question startled him, causing his character to fall off a cliff and die.

"What are talk about?"

"I don't know, Soul. You tell me. Ever since I've been the one to receive date requests, you've been acting weird. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then the requests mysteriously disappeared from my locker." She glanced at him to judge his demeanor in case it changed before continuing. "And then I found a stack of them in the back of your closet when I was looking for my shoes…."

"What the hell would your shoes be doing in my closet?" Maka ignored his question.

"Not to mention that I've had three dates so far that have all bailed when you went down to talk to them. Do you not want me to date?"

Soul was baffled by her question, mouth agape as he stared at her until he shook himself from the stupor to turn back to the game. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then I'll be blunt…do you like me?" her voice was barely above a whisper and he thought he heard her wrong. But when Soul looked back to her, Maka refused eye contact with him and there was a hint of a blush on her checks. He didn't hear her wrong.

"Do you like me?" Maka turned to glare at him, the blush deepening with each second.

"Why would I have feelings for someone like you? You're ignorant, rude, conceited and-" Soul cut her off with his lips. At first, Maka was caught off guard, surprised to have Soul's mouth on hers, but then she accepted it, returning his kiss gleefully. He moved his hands to her checks, guiding her head, while her hands gripped his biceps. They both released the suppressed feelings they felt for the other with that one kiss before finally coming up for air, both heavily breathing.

"That's why your last three dates bailed on you." Soul whispered.

"Why didn't you say anything before then, idiot?" Maka pouted causing Soul to release a small laugh before kissing her again. Neither Soul nor Maka dated another person after that day other than each other.


	18. If You Say So

**WARNING: This is heavily based on Lea Michele's song 'If You Say So' that was she wrote after Cory Monteith's death. In other words, major character death that is actually different from the other three I've done.**

**If You Say So**

At first when she received the phone call, Maka didn't want to believe that something could remove him from her life so quickly. That the man she came to fall in love with could lose his life via a plane, something that was used every day at various times of the day. She continued to hope Soul would walk through the door of their apartment, kiss her and laugh at something stupid she did. Even after the funeral, when everyone gave her their condolences for her lose, she continued to hold on to her belief that this was one big joke Soul had pulled off. For days Maka continuously checked her phone, hoping she had missed a call from him or that she had a text from him waiting for. She waited for his name to light up her phone once more, to see his picture flash again to indicate he was trying to contact her. He wouldn't leave her. Not like this. He was strong person who could survive anything, and would always come back to her no matter what. But after a month, he never did walk through that door.

A month later, all Maka wanted to do was scream at the world. It started when her friends announced their engagement to each other. On the outside, Maka was happy for them, they deserved each other, and truly they did. But on the inside, she was ready to murder them. How could they be happy and be able to live the rest of their life with the person they love when she couldn't? How her friend could stand there, flaunting the engagement ring in her face, taunting Maka with the one thing she could never have? It wasn't fair that she had to lose the one person she fully trusted and loved so easily while everyone around her didn't. It wasn't fair that the rest of the world was happy while she was suffering because she lost the love of her life. The world should suffer with her instead of mocking her with its happiness. It just wasn't fair.

Then Maka began to bargain with whatever higher power there was so she could have her beloved back, her Soul. It started with small bargains, removing soda and candy from her diet, in exchange to have him back, but it didn't work. That's when she began to plea for a time machine or anything to take her back in time so she could spend just one more day with him. She would do anything just to spend a little more time with him, feel his warm hands on her, kiss him one more time, hold him one last time. It didn't have to be anything sexual, she just wanted to have Soul there with her physically. She wanted to hear his laugh again, see him crack a grin, tease her, all the things she found annoying about him, she missed the most. But none of her bargaining worked. Soul remained gone from her life, stuck six feet under with no warmth, all alone.

After two months, Maka refused to leave the apartment. She spent a majority of her day lying in bed or on the couch wrapped up in his afghan blanket his grandmother had given him. Her friends continued to call, begging for her to come out and do something, but Maka refused every request that came her way. She broke down crying when she found his things around the apartment, just waiting for their owner to come back and use them. Or when she came across his sweet stash in one of his old drawers. Maka especially cried when she found the music composition he had written for her, clutching the sheets of paper to her chest because she would never be able to hear him play it for her. She had to stop looking through her phone because that only made matters worse. There were still text messages on there and photos of the two of them together, reminders of what she had lost, made the tears stream down her face and her heart ache even more. Maka almost lost her job, she had called in one too many days, but thankfully her boss was forgiving and understood she needed this time to herself right now.

It wasn't until seven months after she received that life changing phone call that Maka finally accepted that Soul was never coming back. She had moved out of the apartment they shared together, placed the small piano he had bought in storage with a few of his other things, and attempted to move on with her life. She did keep some of his things, like his headbands especially the goofy one with his name on it, his black and yellow jacket as well as the black leather one he used to wear, and a few other memorabilia's that held a special place in her heart. She also finally worked up the courage to open the small box she found in his underwear drawer that turned out to be an engagement. Maka did cry when she saw it, but she still wore it everywhere she went. She knew deep down in her heart that Soul wouldn't want her to continue pining for him. He would want her to move on in life and be happy with those around her. Soul would want her to live, and wherever he was, Maka was sure he would be looking down on her and she didn't want to upset him. She would make Soul proud of her, and do all the things they were going to do together so she had stories to tell him when they finally met again.

"_What time are you leaving there?"_

"_I'm taking the red-eye so I should be there tomorrow morning. Will you be able to pick me up?"_

"_Yea, I'll be there. I can't wait to see you again."_

"_Me either. A month is far too long."_

"_I know."_

"_They're calling my flight. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"_

"_See you tomorrow."_

"_I love you."_

"_I love you more."_

"_...if you say so."_


	19. A Summer Tale

**A/N: not the best but it's still a little cute.**

**A Summer Tale**

It was summertime and a majority of the college kids in town could be found lying on the beach on the weekends, soaking up the sun, and spending time with their friends. However, Soul wasn't much of a beach going kind of guy. He much preferred to stay in his apartment where it was air conditioned rather than sweating out in the sun. He viewed the beach as a place that was overly crowded, with tourists who had no respect for personal space, and it left him feeling hot and sticky, not the good kind either. However, when he was reluctantly dragged out to the beach by his friends one day to "socialize", his general thoughts of it changed.

This change was all thanks to a certain blonde lifeguard who was working at the tower near the spot his friends usually chose. She was definitely cute by all means, and he had seen her occasionally hanging out with Black*Star and Tsubaki, but he never had the chance to meet her before. Soul had only ever seen her wearing dresses and skirts with tops that didn't really accentuate her body. But seeing in her a tight fitting, spandex one piece swimsuit really brought out the curves and figure she had. Before that moment, Soul saw her as the cute, girl next door type, but now she was leaning more toward the girl you never thought was sexy but then you see her wearing something new and BAM there goes a boner.

Needless to say, Soul found himself going following his friends to the beach more often than he usually would after this new discovery. It started as subtle glances in her direction, just to admire her sitting in the lifeguard tower, but then it changed into blatantly watching her. The change started on the day he spotted her rubbing suntan lotion on her body. Soul watched as she rubbed the lotion on her long slender arms, making sure to get the indented parts of her arms really well, and lavishing the excess lotion from her arms to her exposed chest. When she was happy with the amount of protection on her arms, she moved on to her mile long legs to Soul's great pleasure. She used the lotion to not only protect her legs, but also massaged it into her skin, spending extra time on her muscles.

Soul had it really bad for her, and would imagine the most inappropriate scenarios in his head that he had to go in the water to cool down at least once every hour. This girl was tortuous on his mindset, and would be the death of him if he didn't do something about it. Which is the exact situation he found himself in a few weeks later, laying on his stomach, eyes drooping down as he watched her, imagining how it would be to just talk to her.

"Ugh…she's so cute…" Soul didn't realize his lips decided to release his thoughts out loud.

"You've been staring at her for weeks now, why don't you just go talk to her?" Star said with a devilish grin plastered on his face.

"HAHA yea, go talk to her! I'm sure she'll find you hilarious!" Patti told him in a fit of giggles.

They were up to something, but Soul's mind was too busy thinking of other things that he didn't really question their odd behavior. He was far too busy having a battle of whether he should go talk to the lifeguard or not. He was about to settle on chickening out when she stood up from her stand so another lifeguard could take her spot. She walked over to a bag that wasn't far and bent down to rummage through it. This was Soul's chance and he took it.

Soul cleared his throat to get her attention as he stood behind her. She turned around and grinned at him. "Hi."

Soul felt more awkward than he had anticipated. His hand maneuvered to rub his neck and he avoided eye contact. "Um..hi. I know you don't know me but my name is-"

"I do know you. You're Soul Evans. We have the same friends but never crossed paths before. I'm Maka." She stood up and offered her hand to Soul. He stared at it a little skeptically before shaking her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Yea…you too." Soul finally looked her in the eyes and noticed that Maka's eyes were warm and inviting, like every other aspect of her. "I know this is real sudden and weird, but do you maybe want to hang out sometime? Just the two of us?"

Maka bit her bottom lip, but her smile never faltered. "I think that would be fun. I get off at six, do you maybe want to do something then?"

Soul didn't imagine it would go this smoothly. He thought she would at least be a little against it since they barely knew each other. "Yea, I can pick you up then."

"Great. Then I'll see you at six?"

"Yea I'll see you then." Soul awkwardly waved a goodbye to her before turning around to go back to his friends. However, he heard her giggle which caught his attention. Maybe she thought he was really lame and she was playing a joke on him.

"What's funny?"

Maka placed her hand over her mouth to hide her grin. "Oh, nothing. Just…I think you might want to check your back when you get home?"

Soul was confused, but just nodded. For the rest of his beach adventure, Soul spent it watching her work and was in complete bliss. He had finally asked her out and she had accepted, nothing could ruin this moment for him. But when he finally did arrive home to check his back like she had suggested, that bliss died real quick. Apparently he was so far in his daydream world that Star and Patti had placed suntan lotion on his back without his knowledge. They didn't do what regular, good friends did, applying lotion to protect their friends' back. Oh no, they weren't that good of friends. Patti and Star thought it would be funny to draw a penis on his back, and an arrow leading to his ass with the words 'insert here' above it.

Soul was mortified, but still went to pick her up for their date. If she hadn't denied him earlier when she giggled, then it must not have scared off too bad. When he parked his motorcycle by the beach in the area near her stand, he spotted her immediately. She was sitting on one of the cement boxes that separated the beach from the sidewalk, wearing black shorts and a yellow light jacket zipped up slightly to reveal an orange tank top underneath.

"Hey!" She smiled at him when she was standing in front of him.

"Hey." Soul smiled back.

"Did you check your back?"

"Yea I did. My so called friends are bastards." Soul growled. "Sorry about that."

Maka straddled the back of his bike and scooted closer to him to sit more comfortably, wrapping her arms around his middle. "Don't worry I thought it was cute."

Soul was very thankful that the wind caused Maka to tuck her head behind his back because he felt his cheeks begin to warm at her words. He took her to a restaurant he knew she would enjoy from what Tsubaki had told him over the phone earlier. Their date went over well, she ended up only joking about the suntan incident twice which he laughed at along with her.

At the end of the night, when Soul dropped Maka off in front of her apartment, she had actually leaned up to kiss him. Usually he chose not to kiss on the first date, but since she initiated it, Soul accepted it gleefully. When they stopped, Maka invited him inside where they talked some more, watched a movie on Netflix, and made out some more. Soul found out in the early hours when sleep deprivation was getting the better of them, that she had been wanting to ask him out for quite some time now.

They ended up falling asleep on her couch at about five in the morning, Maka draped over his lap and Soul sitting straight up which cause him to wake up with a terrible neck cramp. They were together for another four months when Maka's lease was up, and Soul asked if she wanted to move in with him, which she happily accepted. It was another year before he asked her to marry him, and they were married that next fall. Years into their marriage, when their children were grown and moved out, and they were lying in bed in one morning, Soul reminisced on how all of this came about. He never imagined back then that he would meet the girl he was going to marry all because of a trip to the beach and suntan lotion art.


	20. Coffee Love

He came to the little coffee shop every day at the same time, ordering the same thing, a tall caramel latte and apple fritter, every day, and sat down at the table in the back corner in front of the window. From the moment she saw the strange man with spikey, snowy hair and crimson eyes, Maka knew he was going to be the end for her. She picked up on his routine after about a month, her schedule rarely changing due to her obligation to school. She didn't know his name. The only thing she knew about him other than his coffee shop routine, as she came to name it, was that he currently attended one of the universities in town and was a music major. She only knew this because every now and then he would bring a music textbook to read, and other times he would spread out papers on the table to study for some exam coming up. Maka still didn't know his name after five months of him coming in due to her mystery man leaving an hour before her shift was over every time. But Maka wasn't sure she would even work up the nerve to ask his name had he stayed longer than he did.

He was complete stranger to her, just another face walking around the city that she would never truly meet, yet that didn't stop Maka from being completely smitten with him. It didn't stop her from sneaking glances toward him in between making drinks and taking orders. She did this so often that Maka began picking up on the little things he did. Like how he moved his fingers while he read similar to a pianist performing, or the slight way his head bobbed to and fro while listening to his music. She noticed every single of his little quirks he did when he thought no one was watching. She also noted how toned his muscles were, involuntarily flexing every now and again, and when he stretched out his back one day she noticed how nice his lower back muscles were thanks to his shirt riding up a little. Maka watched his body motions so often, she found herself feeling flustered that she would have to excuse herself to go to the restroom to cool off. Maybe she did have a slight problem that dealt with a man she barely knew, but she wasn't ready to deal with it just yet.

Lady luck was not working in Maka's favor in any way shape or form until she had to go in on her day off to get her paycheck. Maka saw her mystery man sitting in his usual spot with his usual order, nothing was different except for the sudden jolt her heart made when her eyes laid over him. She knew he came when she was working, but she didn't know he also came on the days she was off. However, Maka just ignored him and his presence. If it was going to be like his other visits, he would be leaving in about five minutes anyways. Maka met with her manager to check on her schedule the next week including grab her paycheck, and talked to one of her friends that she worked with. She is in the shop for about fifteen minutes before leaving, and when she glanced over at his usual table, he was still there.

Maka stalled a bit, looking at the different mugs and cups they had for sale, trying to decide if she should just get over her shyness and just walk over and talk to him. But if she did that, would her opening line even be? 'Hi, I work here and I've been watching you for the last five months, do you mind if I sit with you?'….no she couldn't do that. It would be too awkward and not to mention really embarrassing. After some more debating in her head, Maka finally decided on how she was going to go about this, and walked over toward his little table in the corner.

"Hi." She stood in front of him, and he slide his earphones out so he could hear her. "My name is Maka. I've seen you come in here sometimes to study, and I was just wondering which university you attended." Her throat was dry and she could feel her palms begin to sweat from nervousness, and it didn't help that he took a few seconds longer to respond.

"Um…yea I know. You work here. You've memorized my order." He smirked at her and she couldn't tell if it was because he thought it was cute or weird. "I actually go to New York University. I'm a music major there."

Out of all the schools in the area, he attended the same one as her. "Really? That's where I go. Why haven't I seen you around before?"

"Are you a music major too?"

"Well, no. I'm a psych major…" Maka bit her bottom lip and looked down at her feet, she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.

"That's probably why you haven't seen me, I'm always stuck in the concert hall…" he cleared his throat which caused Maka's head to pop up. "But, um, do you want to sit down? I'm Soul, by the way."

Maka sat down in the chair Soul had gestured to while he picked up some of the papers he had sprawled out. Maka noticed that the papers were actually music compositions.

"Did you write those yourself?" she asked him, pointing at the papers in his hand.

Soul looked down at his hands, a light pink tinting his checks. "Uh, yea…it – it's part of the curriculum."

"What do you play?"

"The piano…"

"I'd love to hear you play one of your pieces for me sometime."

"You wouldn't want to hear me. I'm not that great."

"I'm sure you are….I mean I'm not that musically inclined, but I think you would still be good."

"You really think that?" Maka nodded. "Then maybe someday I will perform a piece for you. Anyways tell me about you."

Maka and Soul spent about two hours sitting in the little café, talking and laughing over two cups of coffee, getting to know each other. They found out they shared the same group of friends, but since Soul wasn't really one to go out to parties and Maka was, their paths never crossed. They also realized within that two hour time frame, they really enjoyed spending time with one another which is why Soul took that next step when they were about to part ways.

"Do you want to go out with me sometime?"

"Like a date?"

Soul rubbed the back of his neck. "Um…yea. I guess like a date…"

Maka smiled at his awkwardness. "I'd like that."

Maka found out later on in their relationship, that the only reason he went to the café so often was because he had developed a crush on her and was working up the courage to ask her out.


	21. Red String of Fate

**Red String of Fate**

_The red string of fate. The belief that a little red thread connects two people who are destined to be lovers are connected, regardless of time, place, or circumstances, and can never be broken. Soul heard about it once in an anime he watched years ago. He watched as the two characters were bound together, but never truly became a couple. It wasn't until later on that Soul realized it was all a part of the man's wild fantasy, he was just chasing after his dream girl, so he never really believed in it. That is until by some weird turn of fate, he saw her again. The on girl he thought he would never see again, and the only one he really ever loved. _

Soul Evans lived in New York City for 139 days before it happened, keeping track on the uncool puppy calendar he bought a week after moving on the spur of the moment. Every night he ticked the day off, and writing the number that followed the one shown on the next day. When he first moved to New York, it was meant to be an escape. He was overwhelmed with the pressures of being around his parents again after four years of living in another state. New York City was meant to be his safe haven, but after a week of his arrival, Soul realized there was no solace here. The city was constantly abuzz with life, cars honking and the rumbles of the crowds outside his apartment window as they spoke to people who were in another state. As he travelled to and from work, the streets made him feel claustrophobic, there was no room for his thoughts to grow, and his breathing felt more ragged. New York City was hell, and Soul was ready for his lease to be up and the contract he signed with the company to be over.

On day 140, rain was pouring down the sky and the air around him smelled musty with a mix of sweat and heat from the people around him. Soul stood on the street corner waiting for the light to change, holding the shitty blue umbrella he bought from a mom and pop store, amongst the people around him who were all on their cell phones. It was a mixture of different faces and hair color, all holding different umbrellas or no protecting themselves with jackets draped over their heads, people he would never see again. The woman to his right was shorter than him and yelling on the phone in a language he did not understand, and the man on his left in a business suit was complaining about some project that needed to be finished that day. All the conversations around him were about things that were meaningless to him, but he still felt the voices rumble through his body. Soul closed his eyes, willing the anxiety to calm down. Soul took three deep breaths, clenching his hands to his side, and counted to ten before opening his eyes. When he was exposed to the world again, his lazy crimson eyes focused on the lively green ones of a small blonde girl standing across the street who was smiling at him.

A mixture of blonde and green flashed in his mind, the smell of the beginnings of summer reached his nostrils, and the heat of the sun radiated down on his skin even though the yellow orb was hidden behind dull grey clouds. He knew this girl from a time that happened long ago. At the time he was nine, his parents drove him and Wes to their grandmother's house in the south for the summer, and that was when he met her, the eccentric little girl who lived next door. She was peculiar when they first met, being upfront with him unlike the other girls he met up to that point in his short years. When he was out, she was too, wanting to play with him along the small creek or climb the willow tree on the bank of that same creek. At first, Soul was cautious of her, afraid she would treat him differently because of his unnatural looks, but as the days turned into weeks and she never strayed, he began to feel comfortable around her. There was hardly a moment where they weren't together that summer, and on the way home he talked Wes' ear off about her. The only thing he really knew about the little girl was that her name was Maka, she was two years younger than him, and he would never see her again after that summer.

But as he stood in his little cramped section of the street, Soul realized that fate was a mysterious thing and sometimes she'll sneak up on you with the surprise of a lifetime. New York City was not the place he dreamed of seeing her again. It was always in some dingy jazz café or by a creek like the first time, but there she was standing on the corner of 5th and Broadway, a small smile playing on her lips as her scrutinizing green eyes watched him. Puberty had been gracious for Maka. Her glossy blonde hair framing her slender face and draping past her shoulders was pinned back by two braids. Her body was subtly curved, cinching in at the waist a bit to make her appear more womanly, was adorned in a black pencil skirt and red blouse that accentuated her eyes perfectly. Soul was dazzled by the sight of her. He forgot the people around him, the stress of work and life escaping him, and in that moment it was just the two of them. Is this how fate feels sometimes?

The light changed, and the people on both sides of the street crossed, intermingling together but remaining strangers, but Soul remained still in his spot. Maka never broke eye contact with him as she crossed, holding her orange umbrella, and the smile never faded. Soul's heart quickened with anticipation and want. After years of thinking of her, after breaking up with his first girlfriend, he knew she was his first love even at the tender age of nine. Maka was constantly in his thoughts, dreams, and every day encounters. He never lost the memory of her, never stopped hoping they would meet again. It was all leading up to this one moment. This one fateful moment where they would cross paths once more, years of growth and maturity behind them.

"Hi." Maka was in front of him, clutching the umbrella a little tighter.

"Hey." Soul could feel the goofy smile twitching on his lips. He wanted to pinch himself to assure him that this was not a dream like it had been so many times before.

"Soul, right?"

"Yea." He was far too nervous to speak more than one word, fear taking over him that it would come out sounding like a pubescent fourteen year old boy talking to his crush for the first. It was later that night, reminiscing on the events of the day, Soul realized that meeting her here did make him a neurotic fourteen year old boy.

"Do you remember me?"

"You're Maka. We met when I was nine at my grandmother's home."

"I'm glad you remember me or else this would have been really awkward."

"Like it isn't right now?" Maka's smile grew wider, her lips releasing a small giggle. Her laugh was intoxicating and Soul wanted to, no needed, to hear more of it. He didn't want to let go of Maka again now that she was here. "Where were you heading before now?"

"I was actually going back to my apartment so I could eat the ramen soup I bought last week and watch Orange is the New Black by myself." She smiled at him, hoping he would catch the hint, and for once in his life he did.

"Do you maybe want to grab something at this burger place not far from here? My treat?" Maka bit her bottom lip and lightly bounced on her toes. Soul could see the excitement building up in her.

"Yea. That sounds a hell of a lot better than what I had planned." Soul nodded and moved to lead the way across the street before she pulled him back by the nape of his shirt as a cab roared by. "Maybe we should wait for the light to change?"

Heat began to rise to his cheeks. They just barely met again and already he was embarrassing himself. "Yea it would be unfortunate if I died, wouldn't it?"

Maka smiled up to him, fondness coating her eyes. "It would be very unfortunate especially after meeting once again."

They crossed the street when the light turned from green to red, the sound of their shoes splashing water. Maka remained near Soul, her umbrella tapping his should every now and then, and her hand lightly brushing his hand intentionally as they walked. Their conversation stayed on the path of sweet pleasantries, both waiting to reach their destination before asking the deeper questions that played on the tip of their tongues, begging to be released out of curiosity. At the burger place, Soul ordered one of the biggest burgers they had and Maka ordered a vegan burger, and once they had their meal chose to sit at a small table meant for two by the window.

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" Maka finally asked the one question that was buzzing around her mind their whole trip there. Soul almost spit out the bite of burger he had taken due to being caught off guard by her question.

"Um….no. I'm not seeing anyone in that way right now." Maka nodded her head, and popped a fry in her mouth to hide her smile. He already knew she was single but the hint she laid out in front of him earlier, so rebounding the question was out of his court. Soul settled on the simplest question he could think of. "What brought you to the city? You always seemed like a small town kind of girl."

"I'm working as an intern at one of the law firms here in town."

"You want to be a lawyer?" Maka nodded. Soul had guessed she was only twenty-four, and was surprised that someone as young as she was already doing what people his age were. "Aren't you still a little young, though?"

"I finished high school a year early as well as college. What do you do?"

"I'm a one of the music teachers at NYU."

"Do you like it? I remember you played the piano for me the day I cut my leg. You wanted to cheer me up."

"It's alright…the students are a bitch to work with though." They ate in silence for a moment more, the diner was almost empty and the rain outside had eased up a bit. Soul had run out of the things to talk about, things he felt were safer for conversation. "Do you like your burger?"

"It's really good." Maka was picking the sesame seeds out of her burger, refusing to make eye contact with him. Soul began to worry that she was going to leave, proclaiming that their meeting again was a mistake. Then Maka looked back up at him, her smile small like when she was standing across the street not too long ago. "Isn't this funny? You and I meeting after years of not seeing each other, losing contact with one another, until we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We only met once on a whim because we both happened to be spending the summer at the exact same place."

"It is a little funny. Almost like fate was telling us to be together or something." Maka looked at him quizzically. "I mean, I personally don't believe in all of that, but I know there are some who do."

Maka's smile slowly crept back on her face as she watched him. "I've actually been thinking the same thing since I noticed you on that street corner. I've met tons of people since you, but you're the only one that this has happened with. Maybe it is some weird higher power that's trying to tell us we belong together." Maka looked away from him, a slight blush working on her cheekbones.

"Maybe we're both right. That this is the world's way of telling us we should be together." Soul would never admit it to anyone else, but she was different. She wouldn't judge him about it because she felt the same way and understood. "Kind of like the red string of fate belief in Asian culture."

Maka's head snapped back up to look at him, her eyes wide. "You've heard of that too?"

"I saw it in this anime I watched a long time ago so I don't know much about it just that there's an invisible red string attached to two people that are meant to be together."

"Yea, that's exactly what it is…" Maka leaned toward him, her meal long forgotten. "So, tell me what has happened in your life since we last talked. There should be quite a bit since it's been fifteen years."

They spoke more about their lives and laughed at each other's jokes and embarrassing moments until about two in the morning when the diner started to become packed with people after a long night of partying. Soul and Maka chose to share a cab, having Maka be dropped off first since she leaved the closest and Soul wanted to be a gentleman by not leaving her alone with a strange male taxi driver. When the cab arrived in front of her apartment complex, Soul walked her to the front lobby so he could bid goodbye to her without said man staring at them to hurry up.

Maka was about to leave when Soul gently grabbed her wrist to have her face him again, and then he did the one thing he never thought he would. Soul cupped her face, warm to the touch, leaned down and kissed her. It was a few seconds of awkward kissing, Soul felt like he was kissing his pillow similar to around the time he first noticed girls, before Maka moved her lips in time with his with a few nose bumps. If Soul didn't know any better, he would say this was their thousandth kiss, it felt like they had practiced for years, learning the other's movements, instead of just a few short hours. Their lips were so in sync with each other, and his mind was too preoccupied with focusing on where his hands should go, her dainty little waist, that he didn't notice her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. They bid farewell to each other, promising to see each other the next day, before going their separate ways, both in a state of heaven that nothing could break.

Fate has a strange way of putting the pieces of puzzle together, bringing two people that by all odds were believed to never meet again, only to show that they were always meant for each other, and only each other.


	22. The Gay Complex

**The Gay Complex**

When Soul first read her ad in the newspaper, he was a little skeptical about it. He did need a roommate, but living with a girl felt like it would be difficult thing to deal with. However, he still reluctantly went to the address and was surprised when she accepted him right away. Usually girls would be cautious about having a male roommate, but she seemed to be excited about it. He never really bothered to question why until the day she set him up with one of her friends named Jonah. Maka was under the impression that he was gay.

Lucky for him, Jonah was an understanding guy when Soul told him he was completely straight. That is not until after he was kissed by Jonah. when he walked him back to the apartment. However, he still promised not to let Maka in on Soul's little secret, to allow him to be the one to tell her. That still didn't stop her from pestering him constantly about why he wasn't interested in Jonah or any guy she introduced him to for that matter. But he still never found it in him to tell her the truth.

It also didn't help that she walked around the apartment either topless or in a t-shirt and panties. Soul wanted to tell her, honestly he did, but he never had the heart to do it when she was dressed like that. For one, it would be really embarrassing for both him and her. Second, he was a tad bit of a pervert and if he said he didn't enjoy the show, he would be lying. And if he was completely honest with himself, he didn't want the show to end just yet.

It had been about six months of this, and Soul knew for sure he wasn't gay. He also knew that he had begun to have more intimate feelings for Maka. This only made matters even more awkward for him. He was starting to have to be creative in hiding in his boners that came up when she wore practically nothing around him. Soul knew he had to put a stop to this, but he wasn't completely sure how to go about it. He let her believe he was gay for so long, at this point she would see him as a pervert and most likely kick him out.

"So Jonah has this one friend who I think you would really like." They were sitting on the couch, watching some chick flick he forgot the name of and wasn't really that invested in. She was wearing a tank top and purple panties since it was too hot for anything else. He had to do it now. There couldn't be anymore stalling.

"Maka."

"I mean has better manners than you and he doesn't remind you of a vacuum when he eats like you do, but I think you two might get along."

"Maka."

"I know you haven't dated much since you moved in, but I really think you should give this guy a chance."

"Maka!" Was she in her own world or something? She didn't usually ignore him like this.

"You just need to get out there, Soul. Meet some nice guys or-"

"I'm not fucking gay, Maka!"

That caught her attention, finally. "Huh?"

"I'm not gay. I was going to tell you but then I felt like it would be awkward-"

"Awkward? What do you think this is, Soul? I'm sitting here in my underwear!"

"Well, it has been worse…"

"You've seen my half naked! And you're fucking straight! You made me believe you were gay this whole time?"

"I didn't know how to tell you."

"You could have done it when we first met instead of waiting for now! Why do you think I agreed to even room with you!? We've shared the same bed!"

She had started hitting him and, even though she was tiny, Maka had some power in her slaps. "Ow. Fuck, Maka that hurts!"

"I think after six months of seeing more of my body than any other guy, you definitely deserve this! Dammit, Soul! That was a real douche move!"

"I'm sorry, Maka! But I didn't know how to tell you! Fuck, just stop hitting me!"

She listened to him but her face still said she was angry at him. "I'm not going to kick you out because frankly I don't have the time to find another roommate who can help pay rent for this place." Soul was relieved. "But that doesn't mean I can't act like you don't even exist!" And with that Maka stormed back to her room and slammed the door.

"Argh! Really? I said I was fucking sorry!"

"I don't care, Soul! You still saw me naked! I think you deserve some kind of punishment for that! And if you tell anyone else about this, I will make it so you can't reproduce in the future!" her words were muffled through the door, but Soul still heard everything she said.

Maka kept her promise of ignoring him for about a whole month. It was complete torture. Everything he did never phased her. Not when he threw the book she was reading across the room, not when he refused to do any of his chores, and not even when he turned all her white shirts pink. None of it changed her demeanor. But when her strike was over, he found himself in a world of hurt for all of it. Needless to say, it took her another two months before Maka agreed to go out with him, the ordeal behind them. Except for the occasional guilt trip she put him through when he really pissed her off or wouldn't do something for her.


	23. The Mystery Girl

For the past month Maka had been helping Soul plan out ways of asking out the girl he liked. At first, Maka was completely for it. Soul was never one to actually want to express his feelings for someone in a romantic way. Every idea he spewed out to her was immensely thoughtful and would win over any girl's heart. But now, Maka was regretting ever agreeing to help him out. She didn't like to be the best friend who stood by as the one guy she actually felt anything romantic for went out with some girl she barely even knew. What if she was a known heartbreaker? What if Soul married her? Or worse, what if this girl was another meister and Soul ditched Maka for her as a partner?

Soul would never do that, she knew it deep down, but right now all rational thoughts escaped her. The only thing she wanted was to be the girl Soul was doing all of this for. If she wasn't such a shy person, she would have expressed how she felt about him by now, but she wasn't. She was a weak, scared little girl who was afraid of being open with those who meant the most to her. But right now she didn't want to think about herself and put the blame on her. Right now, it was all Soul's fault for being a complete idiot who was blind of her flirtatious attitude toward him, and not catching on that it was him she really wanted.

"Stupid Soul with his stupid hair and stupid eyes and just….stupid, stupid Soul in general." Maka was cutting the potato she was holding with a little more force than usual. She thought it would be better to take out her frustration with an inanimate object rather than the person it was actually directed to. The last thing she wanted was to be arrested for killing someone who, especially when that someone was such a stupid little boy. Maka turned the knife around and stabbed the cutting board. "Argh! Why did I have to choose such a stupid partner!?"

She threw the tiny pieces of potato into the trash and trudged to her room to plop face down on her bed. She wanted so much to sink into it and never emerge again. Soul was currently at the spot they had set up for the mystery girl. He was probably standing in the jazz café now, in front of the piano, waiting for the mystery girl to appear, wearing his black pinstripe suit with the silky red tie. Probably standing there with the dozen roses they had agreed were the best for his situation, that stupidly gorgeous smirk on his face….how much she wished it was her instead.

Maka heard her phone buzzing on the bed stand, and turned over to grab it. Soul sent her a text asking for her to come over to the jazz café. Maka was confused. He wouldn't be texting her unless something had gone wrong. They planned this out perfectly. Maybe the girl never showed up, and he wanted her to be there with him right now. She sent him a text to inform him she was on her way.

Lucky for Maka, the jazz café wasn't that far from their apartment. It was swanky little place, actually the same place that Soul brought her to when they first agreed to be partners. He played an eerie tune back then that would scare of people who were more intellectual about music, but since she wasn't Maka had actually enjoyed it. Soul stood at the exact place she had pictured him to be when she entered the café, the gorgeous roses bringing out his eyes and that stupidly gorgeous smirk on his face that she loved so much. Why couldn't she be the one he was waiting for?

"What's wrong? Did she not show up?"

"No, everything's fine." His smirk never dropped. There was something different in his eyes that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Then why did you text me to come here?" She was utterly confused. Maka shouldn't be here in case the mystery girl showed up, saw the two of them together, and mistook the situation as something else. Soul didn't care for her in that way, and she would rather not have rumors about the two of them spreading around the school. "I should go before she shows up."

Maka turned to leave, but Soul reached out to grab her wrist. "Wait. There was a reason I texted you to come here."

"What was it then?" This earned her a low chuckle from him.

"You really are an idiot aren't you? There is no other girl, Maka. The girl was you the whole time. All of this," Soul spread his arms out to emphasize his attire, "it was all for you. _You_ helped me plan out how I was going to ask _you_ out."

Maka was stunned. All of this was for her? "Seriously?"

Soul placed the roses on the piano's keys and turned back toward her, pulling her into him by the waist. His smirk was devious before he leaned down to kiss her. It was awkward for the first few seconds, Maka took some time to realize what he had done. But once her brain registered what her body was already doing, she knew this was right. Their connection from soul resonating so often helped her in guiding her lips against his, like he was telling her what to do.

Now she was the idiot for not catching on that he had gone through all that trouble for her. Looking back she noticed all the subtle hints he left her, the fact that the mysterious girl was musically inept and had a fascination with books.

Soul ended the kiss and leaned back to look at her, his hands still on her waist. "So do you want to go out sometime?"

Maka pouted and lightly slapped his chest. "Baka."

"I love when you speak Japanese to me." He chuckled before pulling her in for another kiss.


End file.
